Cellphone patrol: More citizens are reporting DUIs to police

After pleading guilty last month to misdemeanor drunken driving, ESPN radio talk show host Harry Teinowitz told the judge that his March arrest in Skokie was “probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”

If so, he has another driver to thank, one who authorities said observed Teinowitz’s car swerving dangerously across lanes and used a cellphone to alert local police.

Teinowitz may be among the few who are grateful, but he’s far from the only person who’s been arrested as a result of motorists using their cellphones to alert police to other drivers who they believe are dangerous or impaired.

“People call all the time about erratic drivers,” said Roger Wilson of Skokie’s emergency dispatch center. He said the village typically receives a couple such calls every day.

As an increasing number of people have instant communication tools available to them wherever they go, officials from Skokie and several other north and northwest communities say they now see a steady stream of calls from drivers reporting other motorists in real time.

Generally, local law enforcement officials say they appreciate the public’s help in flagging potential roadway menaces — so long as the callers themselves aren’t breaking any laws, such as calling from a non-hands-free cellphone in communities where that’s banned.

And though Wilson said some drivers “sort of take ownership” of the situation and want to know how it’s resolved, some law-enforcement officials advise callers against following the motorist in question, as the person who reported Teinowitz did, calling in location updates until police arrived.

Some dispatchers are trained to advise motorists to tail the driver in certain situations. In other cases, though, many law-enforcement officials say it’s preferable to let police take over after a report has been made.

By the same token, authorities stressed they don’t make arrests strictly based on a report.

“The police officer has to observed the erratic driving and have probable cause,” Wilson said.

Markers of impaired driving can include driving too fast or too slow, making wide turns, drifting or weaving across traffic lanes, braking erratically or driving without headlights at night.

Whatever prompts a driver to report another to police, Mundelein police Chief Raymond Rose agreed the phenomenon has become commonplace.

“There are lots of them happening,” Rose said. “They follow the idea of community policing and community involvement. They’re our eyes and ears. They’re helping us and the community.”

Some roadway safety groups do more than encourage people to report unsafe drivers to police — they offer cash awards as incentives.

Schaumburg-based Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists, or AAIM, runs a program called Drunkbusters that pays callers $100 for any tip that leads to an drunken-driving arrest. The program runs statewide during holidays but is in effect year-round only in Lake, Kane, DuPage and Will counties.

Under the program, callers must identify themselves to the police dispatcher handling the call. In some cases, the caller might be asked to stay on the line to help in locating or identifying the vehicle in question.

The next business day, the caller can check with the police department to determine if the call led to an arrest for drunken driving.

If so, written confirmation is submitted to AAIM and a $100 check will be mailed to the caller, AAIM officials said.

AAIM Vice President Marti Belluschi stresses that more than money is at stake.

“Traffic safety affects everyone,” said Belluschi, who said she was seriously injured as a teenager by a drunken driver who crossed three lanes of traffic and crashed head-on into her father’s car.

“I would always encourage everyone to call police if they observe erratic driving,” she said. “Public involvement is a large part of the answer to the problem of drunk driving.”

“This is a life-safety issue,” agreed Highland Park police Cmdr. George Pfutzenreuter. “These people should be removed from the roadway.”

Since January, four tips have resulted in DUI arrests, Pfutzenreuter said.

The Drunkbusters program has paid out $445,000 and led to more than 4,450 DU arrests since its start in 1990 through 2010, according to AAIM. Last year, 345 arrest reward checks were paid out under the program.

Several suburban police officials said the volume of motorist police reports has been steady for several years since the proliferation of cellphones.

Many officials stressed that though the practice has become more common, it’s important to remind callers not to put themselves or others at risk for the sake of trying to report another’s erratic driving.

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And, as Lt. Scott Fabbri of the Libertyville Police Department stressed, motorists should not try to stop other vehicles. He also reminded callers that they must obey speed limits and traffic signals.

In Carpentersville, dispatchers are trained “to inform the caller to continue to follow and report as long as they do not put themselves in danger,” said Cmdr. Timothy Bosshart. Dispatchers are also trained to direct callers to remove themselves from the situation if they are in danger, he added.

AAIM’s Belluschi also cautions that callers should not stop to watch the police pull over a suspected impaired driver, as those situations can turn dangerous.

Having been the victim of a drunken driver who rear-ended his vehicle, motorist Matt Rahe, of Carpentersville, said he wouldn’t hesitate to take down a license number and call police if he saw what appeared to be an intoxicated driver.

“I don’t know if I would go out of my way to follow him,” Rahe said. “I’d probably just stay away from him.”

Callers are advised to provide a car description, including make, model and color; location; and direction of any driver they wish to report, along with, where possible, a license plate number, description of the driver and number of passengers.

At Northwest Central Dispatch Service, which is based in Arlington Heights and handles emergency calls for it and 10 other northwest suburbs, dispatchers can generally see a cell caller’s location on a map plot, though they seek to confirm that with the caller, Executive Director Cindy Barbera-Brelle said.

With location and direction of travel of a suspected impaired driver, Barbera-Brelle said her agency’s dispatchers can also alert nearby towns where the motorist might be headed.

Barbera-Brelle said her agency received 522 complaint calls on reckless driving from January through May. Those included both land and mobile calls, as well as some initiated by police officers.

Police say not every driver who appears impaired is drunk. Schaumburg police Sgt. John Nebl said a motorist who’d been reported by a fellow driver turned out to be having a medical problem related to diabetes. The officer who caught up with the driver called for an ambulance.

Civilian police reports have extended to other matters of police concerns, as well.

“People are using their technology to notify us of crashes, impaired driving, even kids standing in a moving car,” said Sgt. Scott Kristiansen of the Buffalo Grove Police Department.