Romeoville PD Among Top 100 for Handing Out DUIs

As we head into one of the most dangerous times of year for drunk driving—the Fourth of July—a survey ranks the Romeoville Police Department 75th in the state for arrests for driving under the influence (DUI). That’s out of nearly 700 departments that participated in the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists’ (AAIM) 21st annual DUI survey. The anti-drunk-driving organization released the results of the survey Tuesday.

Romeoville reported 99 DUI arrests in 2010, ranking 75th among the reporting departments and tying with the Woodridge and Rosement police departments. The Rockford Police Department was ranked No. 1 with 727 arrests, and Naperville Police handed out the second-highest number of DUI citations in the state, dishing out 671 DUI arrests in 2010.

The department rankings factor in only the number of DUIs handed out in that year and do not account for population or number of sworn officers.

However, according to the survey, Romeoville police average 1.57 DUIs per officer, compared with Naperville (4.02 per officer), Channahon (4.40), Plainfield (3.12), Minooka (2.75), Lemont (2.45).

Joliet, which ranked #42 with 171 DUI arrests, had a lower rate with .65 DUIs per officer, along with Bolingbrook, which showed 1.42 DUIs per officer, and Yorkville, with 1.35 DUIs per cop.

An earlier AAIM survey shows that in 2009, Romeoville ranked 68th with 118 DIU arrests.

“AAIM is always particularly pleased to announce the increases in impaired driving arrests,” said AAIM board vice president and crash survivor Marti Belluschi in a news release.

“Traffic safety advocates believe that drunk drivers who are arrested are the fortunate ones. In our impaired driving prevention programs, we always remind people that if they are driving drunk they are lucky if it is a cop that stops them, rather than a tree, another car or a small child."

The Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists is an Illinois-only citizen activist group founded in 1982 by victims of drunken driving. The Alliance’s mission revolves around prevention, victim advocacy and legislation. A grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation funded the survey.

The results of the survey can be found on the AAIM site by clicking HERE.

Here's how the rest of the surrounding communities fared (sorted by number of DUI citations):