WI Position on OWI should be Criminal

Blurred vision. Impaired judgment. Reckless disregard for public safety. When it comes to state Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) laws, Wisconsin is drunk at the wheel.

Wisconsin is the only state in the nation that does NOT consider first time OWI offenses a criminal act. Behaving like a drunken missile careening down the road will dock the operator of the vehicle the same 6 points as running a stop sign. That’s disgraceful.

Would we accept our neighbors shooting off a few rounds into the air every Friday night? Never! Yet we watch them drive home loaded every weekend. Outside the Wisconsin sphere, OWIs are socially unacceptable. In any other state, a drunk driving offender would be met with a criminal charge, not a ticket. Does Wisconsin have a higher alcohol tolerance, or is this state simply more tolerant of alcohol-related problems?

Wisconsin has a culture of drunkenness. “Drink Wisconsinbly”, a popular slogan coined by the company of the same name, is worn as a badge of honor. Alcohol is the de facto liquid mascot of the Dairy State instead of, say, milk.

In a 2009 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study, more than 26% of Wisconsin adults admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol within the previous year. “Conservative estimates show that a first-time convicted OWI offender has driven drunk at least 80 times prior to being arrested,” Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) notes.

MADD gave Wisconsin only two out of five stars on its efforts to stop drunk driving.  Simple measures like sobriety checkpoints are banned by the state, though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled them constitutional in 1990.  On the first offense, driving privileges are suspended for six months, however this may not be effective. “Research shows that 50 to 75 percent of convicted drunk drivers will continue to drive even with a suspended driver’s license” (MADD).

In response to repeat offenders, Brown County Judge Donald Zuidmulder, a former prosecutor, reflected, “The bottom line is, how are we not figuring out after a sixth, seventh, eighth OWI how to keep these people off the road? ... We’ve tried and failed. And for godsakes, we need to do something.”

Real deterrents implemented by other states, such as sobriety checkpoints and ignition locks, are effective. Wisconsin can’t keep up the tailgate mentality. It’s time to mature; call a cab.

By being the only state that doesn’t consider a first time OWI offense a misdemeanor, Wisconsin is not leading; it’s falling behind the entire nation. When the state stops allowing bad behavior and treats driving under the influence with the seriousness it deserves, Wisconsin can begin to make progress. But the first step to recovery is to admit we have a problem.

Contact your legislator at the Wisconsin Legislative Hotline: 1-800-362-9472.


(Also published at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Purple Wisconsin)