On the good side, sensible pandemic precautions may be reducing drunk driving in Rapid City:
“I ran some numbers for year to date between 2020 and 2019, we’re actually probably at a 23% decrease in the number of DUI’s from last year,” says the Rapid City Community Relations Specialist Brendyn Medina.
Last year at this time, the police department saw 670 total DUI’s and in 2020 only 517.
The police have no specific data on why there is a decrease, but they think COVID-19 plays a role.
“People are staying home, people are limiting travel, people may be choosing to consume alcohol at their house instead of out at the bar mitigating the need for having to drive home impaired,” says Medina [Connor Matteson, “Rapid City Police Department Sees a Decrease in 2020 DUIs,” KOTA-TV, 2020.12.04].
The RCPD speculates that increased use of Uber and Lyft are also helping to keep over-indulgers out of the driver’s seat and out of the ditch.
Decreases in drunk driving have been noticed elsewhere in the U.S. since coronavirus hit in March. Apparently it hasn’t taken a full, official lockdown of bars and other non-essential businesses for at least a few drivers in Rapid City to exercise at least a half-portion of personal responsibility and stay home to get drunk.
Hmmm… people exercise personal responsbility and reduce drunk driving… if Governor Kristi Noem hears about Rapid City’s example, maybe she’ll repeal the state’s heavy-handed intervention in our freedom to revel and travel.
Amazing. There’s little (or no) enforcement of the traffic laws in RC. So naturally, if you don’t enforce the laws, crime goes down. Sorta like if you don’t test for Covid, there won’t be any cases.
Pretty simple. Most of the DUI arrests are a result of accidents or attempting to evade the police.
A DUI in fast city, unheard of. I’ve always liked Kinkys song that just names the city and place. He claims its the first pro abortion song but thats just Kinky, one of his campaign slogans when he ran for governor of Texas was “I support gay marriage: they have a right to be just as miserable as the rest of us.” So there you go. He did get 12 percent of the vote. Listen to Dwight Yoakams version if you wish.