Drunken Drivers: How Many Did Tinley Park Catch Last Year?

By Community Editor Darren McRoy

The Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists released its annual survey of Illinois arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol Tuesday.

The survey contains 2012 arrest data for all Illinois counties and for nearly all towns. The charts in this article show the data for south suburban Patch towns in Cook and Will counties, sorted by DUI arrest rate per sworn officer.

Tinley Park made 103 DUI arrests with 84 sworn officers (1.23) in 2012. In Cook County, the village ranked fourth and sixth among suburban Cook County Patch towns in overall DUI arrests and DUI arrests per officer, respectively.

Parts of Tinley Park also occupy Will County, but the study does not specify the county where the arrests were made.

“One reason AAIM continues to survey and report the number of impaired driving arrests throughout Illinois because traffic safety advocates believe that drunk drivers who are arrested are the fortunate ones," AAIM Board Vice President and crash survivor Marti Belluschi said in a press release.

"In our impaired driving prevention programs, we always remind people that if they are driving drunk they are lucky if it is a cop that stops them, rather than a tree, another car or a small child," Belluschi said.

In the entire state, Itasca had the highest arrest rate per officer (11.48), and Rockford had the highest overall number of arrests (686).

Editor's note: Statistics for Chicago Heights were not a part of the data provided on the AAIM website.