Ann Welch of the Milwaukee area called 911 on her cell phone twice during one drive to report suspected drunk drivers, says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “When you see someone driving as badly as these guys were, you have no doubt,” she said. “It was so obvious that they were impaired. There was no hesitation (about calling). What if they hit somebody else?” Drunk driving arrests in Wisconsin hit an all-time high last year, when 43,202 motorists were booked in such cases, a 10.7 increase over the previous year.
Authorities attribute the increase primarily to aggressive law enforcement and the growing vigilance of drivers. “Almost everyone has a cell phone in their car,” Waukesha County sheriff’s Detective Steve Pederson said. “They are able to get to us quicker. It used to be that when someone saw a driver they suspected of being drunk, they had to get off the road and go find a phone to call us. Now we get people who call us and say, ‘I’m following this driver who is doing this and here is where we are.’ ”