Arresting Evidence on DWI Camera Use Said to Raise Conviction Rates
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Since last October, Fairfax County has videotaped 75 arrests and has obtained convictions in all but one case, which was dismissed. Before police starting using video cameras, the county’s conviction rate was 85 percent. In Montgomery County, police have videotaped 98 arrests and have a 98 percent conviction rate, a slight increase over the year before. And the District’s conviction rate is at least 95 percent on 105 arrests, an improvement of 5 percentage points over last year, officials said. Tom Gallahue, another Fairfax County lawyer who has defended suspected drunk drivers for nine years but has not had a videotaped client, pointed to the already high DWI conviction rate before the use of video cameras. Fairfax lawyer Dickson Young said he thinks that videotaping is a “pretty good, effective tool for law enforcement, inducing many more people to plead guilty. At the same time, it provides objective observation” of the scene at the arrest, he said. A few months ago, Young played a police videotape in court and got a DWI case against his client dismissed. Source : pqasb.pqarchiver.com |