The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

The network formerly known as "The Learning Channel," which brings you gems like "Sarah Palin's Alaska" and "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," now brings you a "reality" show about the DUI industry in Oklahoma:
 
"Unlike COPS, the TLC show just focuses on drunk-driving suspects and follows their story from being pulled over and being interrogated, to, if necessary, arrest and sentencing. The show debuts Dec. 1 at 9 p.m."
http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/11/08/tlc-drunk-driving-d-u-i/

I love the one guy during the interview segment drinking a beer while talking about his experience.

Seems like our DUI laws are becoming "predatory" for lack of a better word. I wonder what the gross annual revenue is for this "industry".

Modified to add: Hope I don't wear out the quote key on my keyboard.

They are all about revenue and not public safety thats for sure......

Most attorneys have established a flat DUI rate (upwards of $5,000).  For that, they will show up and plead guilty for you.

I have an old high school buddy that runs one of the most successful DUI firms in OKC.  He admits it's a racket that keeps him farting through silk.

The first step is to convince your client that you can help them.  The second step is to convince them to plead No Contest.  The third step is to set up a convenient payment plan.

I think your second and third steps are reversed.

The local goverment has some steps too: 1. create a car culture with limited public transportation options and make sure any public transportation options stop running routes early in the night. 2. discourage private transportation options through a draconian set Licensing rules and circular Bureaucracies that overlap and contradict each other. 3. Encourage people to use their cars to go out and create income tax revenue to pay for a police force. 4. provide the police force with increasingly stingent laws so that capturing prey arresting law breakers can be done easily. 5. Cash in

Note: Of course I don't take drinking and driving lightly, it is a practice that needs to be discouraged, but people are going to go out and sometimes imbibe to much. We need to let them get out and get home with out their car.

Are the DUI schools run by the City......I have heard that.....

You mean the ones with all the cars in the parking lot while class is in session?  Not sure.

+1   What he said...

Yup...Those....

Is the one by the highway (I44) between Lewis and Riverside right next to the bar still there. That was always weird to me.

There is an AA meeting place next to a bar in Scottsdale.

I'm looking for an AA meeting with a bar. 

Really helps you to open up.

OHP and the Tulsa County Sheriff's are all over this.

TPD probably didn't participate for the same reason they wont do "COPS" episodes:  Some segments are scripted and cast.
That shows a great deal of integrity on TPD's part.

Nope.  Privately owned as well as the victim impact panel company which is not affiliated with MADD.  One of our customers owns a DUI school.  I do believe though it helps to have friends in the legislature to get one up and going.  Sort of like a tag agency.

This is not difficult.  FAIK, you can take a tipsy tow 365 days a year where they will pick you and your car up.  Other than that, we've got cabs that run 24/7 as well.  It's not the city's responsibility to make sure drunks get home safe. 

Interesting dynamic here: when I was younger and more stupid than I am now ;) , I'd have a tendency to hand the keys over when I probably was still nearing the legal limit, but give me a few more beers and I figured I was fine to drive.  I'm real fortunate I was never arrested and never in a crash.  Certainly age has made me wiser but more than anything losing a family member and several friends to drunk drivers has made me give the problem a more honest appraisal.

The more cynical amongst you may view this as a fund raiser for law enforcement, but it's designed to make the stakes high enough to discourage drunk driving.  It's proven in countries where they've raised the risk to the point of job loss and long-term incarceration, incidence of DUI is almost nil.  Either we've not raised the stakes high enough because we are more concerned about the rights of someone to drive drunk over the rights of someone to drive home without being hit by a drunk driver or we are a nation of slow learners.  This is still one of the most easily preventable causes of death in the United States.

A better transit system

Agreed, it's not the city's responsibility.  The holiday free tipsy tows wouldn't quite get me home from downtown by about a mile or two.  I don't know what they cost otherwise.  I've heard it can be really difficult to impossible to get a cab around here unless you are at the airport.  That could really turn into an expensive few drinks, but better than a DUI or hurting or killing someone.

Public transit would be the answer for most people but I'd hate to have the transit system get the reputation of having nothing but a bunch of drunks on it.  The DUI limits are low enough that too drunk to drive would not necessarily mean too drunk to ride without being obnoxioius.

May not be the best time for the DUI industry:

With DUI arrests down inexperienced attorneys scramble for business
In this economy, it is not surprising when another industry announces a further reduction in its business. What is eye-opening is when one of those declines occurs in law firms that represent drivers charged with driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI).

Why the decline in business? Recently released federal statistics reveal that there has been a 30 percent drop in DUI/DWI arrests nationally over the last five years. In fact, arrests are at their lowest mark in nearly two decades, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The decline may be due to the down economy. Other research suggests people are still drinking as heavily as in years past, so some may just be finding cheaper ways to do so than by going to bars, night clubs and restaurants. Still others suspect that the decline in DUI arrests is a result of a reduction in law enforcement efforts as the tough economy has caused a decline in the number of police officers patrolling the streets.

In a down economy, people drink cheap beer at home. Why do you think people buy beer distributors? ;)

In a down economy, people drink beer at home.
In a really down economy, people drink cheap beer at home.

Cheap beer?  I'll quit before I have to give up my Sundown Wheat (obligatory Marshall reference in thread).

Agreed.  I'll go back to box wine before I'd drink cheap beer at home.

If I didn't drink cheap beer while cooking I'd be s-canned by the time I checked the char.

Some of my best que has been after a full afternoon of Marshall's, Santa Fe, Fat Tire (insert favorite micro brew here).  There's something about smoking or grilling dead animal carcasses that lends itself to good beer.

I respectfully offer that, at times, it tasted really good because you were drunker than a cute blonde girl in a military bar.

As long as you realize that you're the exception, not the rule. ;)

Yes, but faced with Natty Light or water, I think I'd reach for the water.

And I'd reach into the next case for some Yuengling. ;)

Is Yuengling any good?  I've never tried any.  Where did you bring it back from?

(Los Angeles, CA) – TLC takes a raw, first-hand look at the consequences of drivers under the influence with the new series D.U.I., premiering on Thursday, December 1 at 9 PM ET/PT. The action unfolds as law enforcement works to prevent drivers from risking their lives and the lives of others. The network has ordered 12 episodes with six premiering in December and an additional six currently scheduled to air in 2012.
D.U.I. brings viewers on a journey behind the wheel with some of Oklahoma’s most dangerous drivers as they are pulled over by police to take field sobriety tests. Cameras continue to roll as viewers ride along through the process of interrogation, searches, lockup and the attempt to post bail. Each case shares the full story, from arrest to sentencing, revealing the harsh personal reality for the drivers and their families along the way.
The first six episodes were shot in Pontotoc, Cleveland, Sequoyah, Tulsa and Oklahoma counties.
D.U.I. is produced for TLC by Mike Mathis Productions, Inc.

I wonder how many of those people arrested will be subpoenaing the raw footage?  If it's like most police "reality" shows, the participating department has say as to what gets cut from air.

Well that would be one way to get your own reality TV moment.

Alabama. One of my clients is there, so I'm down that way at least yearly.

It's great for a cheap beer. I'd rather have Marshall's, obviously, but it's less than half the price. I might be able to get some "samples" over Christmas if you're interested in trying it. ;)

"Great for a cheap beer",  I guess I'll pass for now.  Thanks anyway.

Realistically, I'd put it on par with the better mass-brewed beers. Blue Moon, for example. Or Killian's from a tap. Good, but not great. Not like effin' Budweiser. ;)

Some of them are actually rather tasty on tap. Bottles are bottles, of course. (BTW, never drink Killian's from a bottle. Ever. Just. Do. Not.)

Agreed.  when I go to Buffalo Wild Wing, it's the only thing I can stomach.  I'm constantly harassing the manager at the BA store about talking to Eric to get Marshall's in house.

On a semi-related note, went to Andolini's last Friday (Owasso, not Cherry Street) and had their Chicken Parmigiana.  Best I've ever eaten.  And having it with a Sundown Wheat made it even better.  And the Garlic Knots...I wanted to put some in my pocket and take home.

Okay to continue the thread drift, I would eat the garlic knots from Umberto's off a re-treaded set of Firestone Suburbanite studded snow tires.  Yeah, they are that good.

Last call on the Yuengling offer. I have to decide on my route home and it could involve a beer stop. ;)

Has this show aired ? I can't find it on my DVR search.

I caught a couple of episodes and if you think people have an outlook as to OK being a bunch of drug using alcohol drinking rednecks, well tis show does it's best to reinforce that.

If it's not too late, bring me some.

Well, that's a surprise.  ::)
People must want to be on television really bad to consent to that, but when you look at who it is...

Enough of the reality tv.  It's too much!

Somehow I missed the request (probably too much holiday drinking), but I will file it away for next time. I'll have a few days in Florida in June and supposedly another trip to Alabama sometime this year, which usually means the hot as hell part of the year.  :'(

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