The PD is probably not going to catch him in the act in response to a call when he gets in the car unless you are lucky-most DUI's are long gone before the unit can get into the area. And the officer has to witness bad driving in order to make a DUI case. That's not to say you should not call.

I don't know how your department is organized but most have a traffic safety unit and many have a DUI unit. Call the PD and ask for a call back from the unit supervisor and fill him/her on what's happening. It might take a while but they will probably find a solution to the problem if they are serious about DUI enforcement.

In my experience, an addict doesn’t change until his circumstances deteriorate faster/further than his ability to lower his standards and not before. Helping your neighbor avoid consequences only delays the conditions that bring change.

Call 911 each and every time you see him driving after drinking, give a good description of the vehicle and direction of travel, you can even say I think he might be headed to the liquor store over on fifth street, etc.

You don’t have to give your name.

And or find a policemen who works your district and tell him what’s up so that if he hears the call given out he can try and get the guy. I would go to the PD and ask for the sergeant for your district and find out who is the Dwi guy on that shift.

A similar but slightly different version of what others said.
Don't call, go there and ask to speak to the highest ranking person to explain what's going on and your sincere motivation for doing so.

Wow, thank you all for the replies. I know I need to call the police. It just makes it easier when your like minded internet friends agree.

As far as a DUI unit… I believe that we have three officers on duty Friday and Saturday evenings. Aside of those days, there are only two officers on duty at any given time.

Noah, I sent you an email.

You’ve gotten some good advice and some not-so-great advice. The best thing you can do is let the local police know what’s going on. Just tell them what you’ve told us, and they’ll be more than happy to take care of it. Don’t confront him, don’t try to help him plan for his drunks. He’s a drunk, and he’s going to kill someone driving, and he’ll probably eventually kill himself with alcohol. An anonymous complaint can go a long way towards saving some lives.

You don’t have to like involving the police, but sometimes you just have to do it. This is one situation they exist for in out society. After he gets his DUI, he’ll have to go through some court-ordered treatment if he doesn’t bullshit his way out of the assessment. He may continue to drink after his first DUI, so be prepared to keep calling his ass in. Sometimes it take multiple DUI’s for a person to finally start to get a hint they’ve got a problem. Sometimes not.

Either way, good on you for wanting to do the right thing, even if you weren’t sure what that was. Good luck with the rest of it - living with/around drunks isn’t easy.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Probably lose a decent relationship with your neighbor, but you've put him on notice. He will know what the consequences are if he does it. If he chooses to do so and you catch him he can't be mad, and you won't feel guilty.

Alcoholics blame others for their problems. That's what alcoholics do, and at the very root of being an alcoholic. He'll absolutely be mad.

Ed, thanks. I’ll check my email.

He won’t bullshit his way out if the assessment. This wouldn’t be his first DUI. He’s currently on probation for his second DUI.

Also, I missed one part about the car in the driveway. It was running all night long. Never even turned it off. I shut it off when I went outside this morning, left the keys on the table in the garage.

Third DUI in this state is a felony with mandatory jail time.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:

Last night he left and made it back, but was so smashed that he left the car door open, the headlights on, and the garage door open (parked in the driveway). It was quite the monsoon last night. Over three inches of rain. So maybe a little karma happened, although it’s not enough to change his ways.

Also, I missed one part about the car in the driveway. It was running all night long. Never even turned it off. I shut it off when I went outside this morning, left the keys on the table in the garage.

This would have been a great time for a Wellness Check from the Police. I think a good cop would realize there was something more going on and make a mental note of it.
.

I will pile on and vote for a call to the cops.
But:
I would arrest known or frequent flyer drunks on one night and the next night see their cars in the bar parking lot. A DUI is not really a deterrent to many drunks.
But calling the cops is the only real option you have.

^^^^^^^Thats a great idea, Yoop.

My experience with an alcoholic was at work. we were working on installing large electrical equipment powered by 3-phase power in a factory setting. dangerous stuff if not handled correctly.

My co-worker regularly came to work drunk. The guy had 3 DUI's in a year, but he kept driving and he did a little jail time, but revoking his license did NOTHING. He kept driving. By the way, 2 of the 3 arrests were from minor traffic accidents that he caused, and not from any type of traffic enforcement like being pulled over for not keeping in his lane etc.

I complained to HR about what I saw at work. They told me that I could report him to HR or management for mistakes on the job, but they told me they had no capacity to assess if he was drunk and asking him, or trying to figure out if he was drunk at work would open the company to lawsuits.

He knew I complained so he started stalking me at home. Driving by, staring, etc. But the, he literally drank himself to death at home one weekend and he died. So problem solved. Was I sad? No, I felt a sense of relief since he was stalking me.

By the way, this guy bought the best lawyers money could buy, which was part of the problem. He seemed to be able to buy his way out of trouble by calling in the lawyer(s).

Which brings me to my next point, the DUI defense attorney who lives 4 doors down the street..... My kids are his kids age, so I got to know him a little. I asked how he lived with himself getting people off on DUI charges. He gave me the standard response that all defense attorneys give. "It's one man against the entire government's legal system." "How do we really know he was drunk if we weren't there?" "Generally it's just a regular guy who has a family and had one too many and just wants to overcome a single mistake." Stuff like that.

Well, he told me some of the techniques he uses to get a DUI dismissed, things like why was the person pulled over, what is the cop's expertise in the matter, was the person treated fairly while the arrest was taking place. Were the rules of evidence followed, and the like.

He directly told me that those with money get the benefit of his service and get to "move on" while those without money don't fair as well.

So, my point is that even with LEO involvement, you may not get the result that you seek. Just the nature of the system and DUI defense attorneys. Sure your neighbor may get arrested and may do a short time in jail, but soon after he will be driving again. Maybe with no license, but he will be driving.

One more thing about the coworker who died. He was apparently an alcoholic at a young age -- late teens. Then it went in to remission for several years until the guy hit his early 40's. When he was sober, he was the BEST DAMN electrical guy I ever worked with. seriously. Electrical stuff is hard (just ask Skins), but he really knew his stuff, and I even learned some electrical stuff from him. He was well organized, knew how to best approach a job such that we could get it right the first time, knew the specs about what components to use with what, knew how to incrementally test electrical stuff, his workmanship was top notch, he was worried about electrical and mechanical safety, etc. But when his alcoholism came back it all went to crap. I never understood how he could be so good when he was sober, but such a waste of crap when he was, well, wasted.

I told my lawyer neighbor about this part, to which he responded, "See, he didn't need the law, he needed in-patient rehabilitation." Maybe he needed both, I'll never know, but he's gone now.

I’d like to add, that in NC a second arrest while under a present DWI revocation is grounds to lose your car.

When that law came out I was the first one to apply it in my county. Guy was in his work truck. The business lost their truck and had to post a bond on the truck to get it back while the case wound it’s way through the courts system. Eventually he lost and the state kept the bond vs the truck. I have no idea how many I seized alone, but we took a fleet of cars off the road. The school board got the money when the cars were auctioned.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
This post is like listening to my wife vent. Do you want a solution or are you just venting. Horrible advice on this advice from start to finish. “Go have a talk with him to better plan his drinking”. Ever met a drunk? Why not just volunteer to make booze runs for him?

Beat him up? What the fuck are you saying? That’s beyond stupid.

You have to call the cops. There is no middle ground. He needs to be arrested before he kills someone.

Not sure if you read past my first sentence or not. The planning his drinking was partially in jest. My point was to give him fair warning. If I see you get in your car drunk, this is what I'm going to do, and you will go to jail. Thereby giving him incentive not to do it and also removing Noah's guilt for landing him in the slammer (which he should have no guilt for anyways). If I have known someone for years I'd give them that ultimatum. It's a thirty second conversation that may stop him from drunk driving, probably not, but at least gives him one last warning.

I still recommend against that for a host of reasons I’m not going to get into. Just a bad idea all-around with a pro alcoholic. Your heart is in the right place, but you’re talking about dealing with someone who has a very warped image of life, himself, everyone around him and his relationships with them. You’re trying to apply reason and logic to a person who doesn’t operate that way. It doesn't work. Nothing but bad things could come from that, and he isn’t going to appreciate the warning. Trust me on this.

Of what Noah's been able to gleam from the situation, this guy is one DUI from an aggravated DUI and should be driving with either a blow-and-go or a suspended license, if I'm making sense of the Arizona DUI laws. If he's already been through the system and is leaving his car running in the driveway all night after a beer run, there's not a damn thing Noah can say that's going to act as either incentive or deterrent.

Definitely call the cops, ask for advice now and call if hes out to drive. I can go into detail about dead people and maimed people we pull out of wrecks but I know some people here have been affected by that and I dont want to bring that back to them. Its nasty stuff and the drunk usually survives.

Sounds like you have a bit of a relationship with him maybe bring it up, hey I saw you stumbling around and I dont want to get in your business but we're cool and I'm worried about you? Hes might talk, might not, but he might also stop driving knowing hes been seen. I wouldnt mention calling the cops it'll just lead to a fight. Plenty of calls come in when the drunks are out so he wont necessarily link it back to you but thats the downside of having the conversation. Best of luck.

Chef, substance abuse, enabling significant other. He sounds a lot like my late brother or Anthony Bourdain before he got famous. Yeah, the chef lifestyle can be crazy AF with little priority towards self-care. Unfortunately, keeping this out of the legal system seems remote. He may be medicating bi-polar or any number of past trauma. I would hate for you to lose your tenderloin source. Is it a long bike ride to his restaurant? Good luck my friend, sounds like he's an "expert".

Call the police.

Eventually, he is going to kill himself and/or someone else.

You do not want that on your mind.

You gotta do the LE thing. You know if 911 or stopping by the station is more likely to work where you live. The person he eventually hits could be you.

quote:

there's not a damn thing Noah can say that's going to act as either incentive or deterrent.

If that's the case (96% sure it is) than there's a 4% chance he stops putting innocent people at risk and 100% chance dude faces the same consequences if he doesn't reach out first. Odds are slim, probably lower than my made up example figure. Still worth it to make an attempt. Worse case he throws a fit and nothing changes. Best case he adjusts his behaviors. Best, best case he stops drinking (again super small percentage).