For the second year in a row, DUII arrests are increasing in Bend

Published 4:30 pm Thursday, December 29, 2022

The number of arrests of people suspected of driving under the influence of intoxicants in Bend has risen for the second year in a row, an increase driven by officers whose focus is to crack down on intoxicated driving.

At the same time, the number of DUII-related crashes in 2022 has risen, compared to last year. Bend Police officers made 677 DUII arrests through Christmas Day, far more than the tally for last year: 509. In 2020, the department issued 296 DUII citations.

The pace of arrests is so great, that one officer made four arrests on one night — and it was a Tuesday.

The department’s two-person DUII enforcement team, which started in February 2021, made at least 190 of the 2022 DUII arrests, according to Sgt. Tim Guest, who oversees the department’s traffic division.

The goal of the enforcement team is to be an active, visible force around town to discourage intoxicated driving, police say. Guest emphasized the team’s role in community safety but acknowledged that he didn’t have definitive evidence that the increased enforcement is leading to fewer people driving while inebriated.

“I can’t really say if they’re affecting those numbers,” he said.

But Guest said the team helps prevent drunken driving before it happens and that its presence “definitely increased the chance of (intoxicated drivers) getting caught.”

DUII-related crashes have increased in Bend over the last year, from 24 in 2021 to 32 in 2022, according to data obtained by The Bulletin. The latest total, however, is lower than the 35 in 2020, data show.

These crashes remain a problem in the city of just over 100,000 people.

In March, Bend police made five DUII arrests in less than six hours. One was a driver who reportedly drove his car down an embankment and into the Deschutes River near the Old Mill District.

In September, a 31-year-old Bend man flew through a red light and rammed into a truck, injuring several people and flinging one person from the truck. The uninjured driver was arrested on suspicion of DUII.

Last week, a Bend police officer stopped a person on suspicion of DUII, arrested him and took him to jail. Roughly 30 minutes later, while police waited for a tow truck and remained parked behind the man’s car, a woman rear-ended the police vehicle, sending it crashing into the man’s car. She was also arrested on suspicion of DUII.

Guest said the team has filled a need for the department. From 2017 to 2020, no officers were available for roughly 1,300 reported DUIIs, Guest said. This was largely because patrol officers were often busy responding to calls that they couldn’t leave, such as domestic violence incidents, he said.

“The Bend Police Department is being very aggressive in its enforcement,” of DUIIs, said Deschutes County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Gunnels. He added: “They are catching a lot of intoxicated drivers, which we appreciate … Intoxicated driving is a public safety threat that we take very seriously.”

But the department’s increased enforcement has been criticized by some defense attorneys who say it has led to an increase in questionable DUII cases that sometimes don’t result in convictions or charges filed in court.

Bend police referred 588 DUII cases to the Deschutes County District Attorneys Office in 2022, Gunnels said. Of those, 395 — or 67% — resulted in a conviction. One-third of the cases are either awaiting further court proceedings and investigations or have been declined by prosecutors.

Bend defense attorney Bryan Donahue handles almost exclusively DUII cases. He says the increased enforcement brings more clients who feel pressured to settle their cases or enter diversion programs without going to trial.

A 0.08% blood alcohol content is the legal limit in Oregon. But drivers can still be charged if their levels are lower and they are impaired due to intoxicants.

Donahue said his office is seeing more clients who have a low blood alcohol content — sometimes 0.00% — when they are stopped and arrested, meaning they could win their cases in court. But some of these clients will still settle their cases because they don’t want to risk fighting their cases, he said.

And although Donahue believes increased DUII enforcement makes communities safer, he questions whether it doesn’t come at the expense of the community’s legal rights.

“Any time you take someone off the street for DUI, that makes the roads safer,” Donahue said. “The question is how many of those people were actually (driving under the influence).”

But what remains clear is that the team shows no sign of slowing down in its mission to crack down on intoxicated driving.

That was the case Tuesday night, when Zach Childers, one of the two officers on the enforcement team, made four DUII arrests.

As New Year’s Eve approaches, concerns over drunken driving increase. Bend police spokeswoman Sheila Miller said the department, like every other year, will have its traffic team working that evening.

Guest said the department will be using funds from a $10,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation to fund increased staffing on New Year’s, with two officers working overtime.

“Obviously, we need them to be there,” Guest said.