(PRWEB) October 30, 2013 -- A special enforcement effort by Texas state troopers resulted in nearly 1,700 arrests for drunk driving last month. But Houston criminal defense attorney Dane Johnson says that the arrests made during the large-scale effort will have to hold up under scrutiny.
The results of the operation were announced this month according to KBTX (10.08.2013). Officers targeted drunk drivers over an 18 day period including Labor Day weekend, a time when drunk driving incidents are historically at a high.
In total, 1,682 DUI arrests were made. More than 200 of those were directly attributed to the increased patrol efforts.
Johnson, the founder of defense firm Johnson, Johnson & Baer, says that when mass arrests are made, there's an increased risk of officers making mistakes.
“Drunk driving is a charge that no one should face without an attorney,” Johnson said. “Defense attorneys are going to look at the huge number of arrests made and ask what procedures were followed, and whether all the rights of the accused were respected.”
Irregularities during arrest can mean that charges don't stick, Johnson says.
“Our criminal justice system is founded on the idea that suspects have a fair chance at defending themselves,” he said. “When troopers are told to bring in a thousand extra arrests in a few weeks, it's easy to treat individual citizens more like numbers on a spreadsheet.”
Johnson emphasized that getting drunk drivers off the roads is still an important job.
“Those who legitimately caused danger to other drivers definitely need to face the consequences,” he said. “But how many of the people arrested were really a threat?”
About Dane Johnson:
Dane Johnson is a Houston criminal defense attorney and a founding partner of Johnson, Johnson & Baer law firm. One of the youngest-ever graduates of the Houston Law Center, Mr. Johnson began his career prosecuting criminal cases and training new assistant prosecutors. He now works on behalf of those charged with crimes, defending DUI cases and other criminal cases with an impressive rate of success. He can be contacted at:
Johnson, Johnson & Baer
1018 Preston Street
Suite 400
Houston, Texas 77002
(713) 489-6541
Dane Johnson, http://www.thejohnsonlawfirm.com, 713-222-0400, [email protected]
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