West Suburban Police Force Claims Most DUI Busts
(CBS) -- As we kick off this holiday weekend, police will be on high alert for drunk drivers.
But patrols in one Illinois community have earned a reputation for ruining the fun and catching criminals.
Special patrols for the July Fourth weekend start in just three hours in Carol Stream. Police expect they'll add to the 160 dui arrests so far this year.
Police already are excited to add another award to their vault: the most arrests for driving under the influence in all of Illinois in 2015.
"We don't have an exorbitant number of bars in our town, we don't have an exorbitant number of liquor establishments," Deputy Chief John Jungers says. "Training is the key, is really getting these officers comfortable making arrests."
The department increased DUI nabs by 32 percent from 2014-2015, also winning the highest rate of arrests per officer.
Carol Stream's edge over bigger 'burbs is believed to be special "drugged" driver training. Marijuana and heroin are the biggest offenders here.
"Our drug DUIs have spiked considerably because we're now understanding what we're looking at, being able to make those arrests," Jungers says.
Some residents wonder if police are trying too hard.
"I just think it's a little excessive sometimes," driver Courtney Nudi says. "I've actually gotten pulled over a couple of times for them thinking, and I'm just coming home from work. Maybe I was going a little too fast, nothing crazy."
Officers don't expect their latest honor will make them more popular.
"You get a lot of grief at times," Jungers says. "It's kept our crashes down, our fatalities down, it's serving its purpose."
A DUI defense lawyer, Brent Christensen, questions the motives behind all these arrests. He says he receives three to four Carol Stream cases a month.
Christensen says it appears police are acting professionally.
