2,268 Los Angeles DUI Arrests Over Holiday – Up from Last Year – What Does it All Mean?

According to the L.A. Times, police around Los Angeles County arrested 2,268 people over the holiday period for driving under the influence in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that the crackdown stretched from December 13 through New Year’s Day and involved diverse law enforcement agencies. The 20 day span utilized special saturation patrols, sobriety check points for Los Angeles DUI, and routine patrols. It netted 100 more people than did a similar crackdown during the 2012 holiday season. Authorities called the plan a success and boasted that the number of people busted for DUI in Los Angeles over the period was “significant.” Authorities plan to perform a similar anti-DUI canvasing during the Super Bowl holiday and St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

Taken out of context, the spike in number of Los Angeles DUI arrests may sound alarming. Are anti-DUI messages not resonating? What’s going on?

When analyzing statistics, you need to be careful to avoid over-interpreting data. Arrest numbers can vary due to random statistical noise. In other words, there may not be a “cause” for the fluctuation – randomness just happens. In fact, at one point over the holidays, CBS Los Angeles reported that seasonal DUIs were on a decline. Here’s a key quote from cbsla.com “the CHP tracked DUI related arrests from 6:01 PM Tuesday through 6:00 AM Wednesday and arrested 76 people in Los Angeles County during that time. During the same time last year, CHP officers arrested 86 people.”

The moral here is clear: statistics without context don’t lead to meaning. You need a guide to the Los Angeles DUI defense process that you can really trust. The good news is that former Deputy District Attorney, Michael Kraut, is standing by to help you make sense of what you’ve been through and plan a strategy to protect your rights.

Have you been stopped for DUI in Los Angeles, contact attorney Michael Kraut at (323) 464-6453 or online. Our team is located at 6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1520, Los Angeles, California 90028.