While Wisconsin remains the only state nationwide where drunk driving is punishable by a ticket on first offense, legislative efforts to criminalize operating while intoxicated offenses could place a burden on state prosecutors.
A bill, proposed this month by Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon and met with bipartisan support, would make it a crime to drive with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 or higher.
Crawford County District Attorney Tim Baxter did not take a stance on the bill but said proposals to criminalize drunk driving could add thousands of cases he and other DAs would need to process. Baxter, who is also a spokesperson for the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association, said attorneys in large counties would not have the staff to do so.
“The state’s own Legislative Audit Bureau found that statewide, we’re just drastically understaffed as it is,” Baxter said. “This is only adding several thousand more cases to an already taxed prosecution system.”
While legislators debate various methods to get tougher on drunk driving laws, Baxter said what remains clear is criminalizing operating while intoxicated offenses will “overwhelm” some DA offices, putting almost an “unbearable workload” on them.
Wisconsin Tavern League Executive Director Pete Madland agreed such high tolls on DA offices could be the downfall of the bill.
Madland said he does not think people with 0.15 percent blood alcohol concentrations worry whether they are violating a traffic offense or a crime. He added the state has experienced its safest OWI record the past two years and has seen drunk driving fatalities reach an all-time low of about 30 percent.
Overall, Madland said he doubts the proposed stricter drunk driving law would have an effect.
“What we’re currently doing is working,” he said. “Would making a first time offender of 0.15 a felon have an effect on that? I kind of doubt it.”
Just because Wisconsin does not criminalize first time OWI offenses does not mean the state is soft on drunk driving, Madland said. He said the state has a 97 percent conviction rate for drunk driving.
Milwaukee and Dane counties would likely be most affected if the laws were enacted because they have the largest populations, which typically means more drunk drivers, Baxter said. He added an office like his in a sparsely populated area of the state would not face as significant of an effect.
“My office would certainly be impacted, but not nearly as much as some of the larger counties – Milwaukee, Dane, Waukesha, anything in the Southeast,” Baxter said.
Ott told The Badger Herald in March he is proposing the bill to deter “bad behavior” by increasing the penalties for such wrongdoings.
However, simply making first offense OWI violations criminal offenses would not prevent people from violating that ordinance, Baxter said.
“It’s a blanket statement we need to get tougher on drunk drivers,” Baxter said. “Well, of course we do. But, getting tougher doesn’t solve the problem all the time. We need to figure out a way to not have as many drunk driving cases as we do.”
He added he does not know whether rationing up drunk driving penalties would solve or cure the problem, adding some argue treatment-based options could better curve these problematic behaviors.
