Drunk driving is bad. Even if you don’t kill yourself of someone else, the legal repercussions of getting a DUI can haunt you for years. The rebut is, as long as you don’t drink and drive, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about, right? In Honolulu, that’s not necessarily the case. The American Civil Liberties Union alleges in a new lawsuit against the Honolulu Police Department that it has a nasty habit of arresting sober drivers for driving under the influence, partly to boost their arrest numbers and partly because department policy allows them to go home early if they make an arrest, CBS News reports.
The lawsuit claims HPD has arrested “scores” of drivers for DUI, even though they should have passed the field sobriety test, and a breathalyzer test showed they had no alcohol on their breath. And while those arrests don’t necessarily result in convictions, they do allow the department to tout a large number of arrests. The ACLU also alleges it’s even worse than that, since the department’s policy allows night officers who make an arrest to go home early, while still getting paid for working their entire shift. That, in turn, allegedly incentivizes officers to arrest anyone they can find, regardless of whether or not there’s actual reason to believe they were driving under the influence.
“Each of our clients blew a 0.000. None of them were intoxicated. Yet they endured lasting damage to their records, their reputation, traumatic arrests, and unlawful detention,” said Jeremy O’Steen, a lawyer working with ACLU Hawaii said in a statement. “What we are demanding today is simple: Stop arresting innocent people. Stop manipulating the system.”
ACLU v. HPD
From 2022 through 2024, the lawsuit alleges the HPD arrested 127 people who passed their breath or blood alcohol tests with flying colors. Of those 127 arrests, only 15 reportedly received traffic citations, and only three were charged with driving under the influence of other drugs. DUI arrests of sober drivers also appear to be clustered at the end of the month, suggesting officers are working to meet monthly quotas without any regard for whether or not the drivers they arrest have actually done anything wrong. On Aug. 31, 2024, for example, HPD arrested three drivers within the space of 20 minutes, all of whom blew a 0.000.
The ACLU is asking the judge to declare the HPD’s actions illegal and unconstitutional, although it hasn’t requested any monetary damages.
In a response to the lawsuit, the Honolulu Police Department issued a statement saying it “takes these allegations very seriously” and said it plans to review all DUI arrests. It also reportedly plans to review three specific cases from plaintiffs at the top of the lawsuit. “We are dedicated to upholding public trust and will take appropriate action should any misconduct be found,” the HPD said in a statement.
Not the first time we’ve heard about this
Sadly, this isn’t the first time we’ve reported on Honolulu cops arresting sober drivers and insisting they were actually intoxicated. In fact, back in 2023, we covered Ammon Fepuleai’s DUI arrest, even though he claimed he was sober at the time. Video of the arrest backed up Fepuleai’s claim he was sober at the time of the arrest, and at one point, the arresting officer turned off his body cam. During the time, he reportedly told Fepuleai to refuse further testing once they got to the station. Ultimately, the charges were dropped, but the arrest still led to his driver’s license being revoked, and he had to pay a $500 bond to get free before hiring a lawyer to clear his name.
Honolulu cops aren’t the only ones who have been accused of arresting sober drivers to inflate DUI arrest statistics, either. In October of last year, Thomas Manis sued a Tennessee State Trooper for falsely arresting him for DUI even though he claimed he was sober at the time. Local news also reported that the State Troopers had a massive backlog of alcohol and toxicology tests that made it difficult for drivers accused of DUI to prove their innocence.
Ultimately, you get what you measure, and if cops get bonus points, actual bonuses and paid time off for arrests, even if the charges are ultimately dropped, there’s a strong incentive for them to arrest people on, at best, shaky grounds. And even if those people are able to prove their innocence in court, that still takes time, costs money and disrupts lives, especially if they lose their jobs in the meantime.
H/T: CarScoops
