Bexar DA reflects on DWIs in San Antonio during her tenure

Roland Flores, driving while intoxicated 3rd or more Roland Flores, driving while intoxicated 3rd or more Photo: Bexar County Sheriff's Office Photo: Bexar County Sheriff's Office Image 1 of / 93 Caption Close Bexar DA reflects on DWIs in San Antonio during her tenure 1 / 93 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — Drinking and driving remains a major problem in San Antonio and Texas despite efforts by local and state policymakers to curb arrests and deaths stemming from individuals driving while intoxicated.

Last year, 7,709 DWI arrests were made in Bexar County, according to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, and 73 of 187 traffic fatalities in 2013 were alcohol related, according to data obtained from the Texas Department of Transportation.

Bexar District Attorney Susan Reed, who leaves office this month, discussed the issue of drinking and driving in the county during her 16-year tenure, and the impact her policies have made, in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News.

Minimizing drinking and driving is an incremental process that requires a collaborative effort across many fields, ranging from sharpening prosecution and allowing sobriety checkpoints to increasing transportation options, such as ridesharing services Lyft and Uber, and changing public opinion, she said.

“The only true way to stop people from drinking and driving is for them to make that decision,” she said, adding that robust public awareness campaigns highlighting the dangers and costs associated are aimed at changing people’s habit of driving while intoxicated.

Reed implemented a No Refusal Policy, or mandatory blood or breath test, for all suspected drunken drivers in Bexar County in 2011 in hopes of strengthening prosecution for DWI charges, which are sometimes stifled in cases without a blood or breath sample.

But she said that effort can be diluted by “weak” sentencing of offenders, such as probation for multiple offenses, by judges that “takes the sting out of prosecution.”

Reed called for a toughening of the criminal justice system as it relates to DWI enforcement and said she supports sobriety checkpoints, which remain illegal in Texas.

“(Sobriety checkpoints) have worked in other states, I think they’d have a big impact here,” she said.

San Antonio’s soon-to-be interim Police Chief Anthony Trevino asked state lawmakers in 2012 to pass a law to allow checkpoints throughout the state.

Reed also highlighted her support for alternative public transportation options, such as ridesharing services Lyft and Uber, which are mobile-based and easy to use, she said.

More Information Editor's Note The gallery above shows booking photos of the 62 individuals who were arrested in Bexar County in November on felony DWI charges, which include DWI 3rd or more, DWI with a child passenger, intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault. The circumstances around these cases elevate them from a class B misdemeanor, the charge for a typical DWI. The photos were obtained through an open records request and the cases are in different stages of the judicial process and an arrest does not indicate guilt and is not the same as a conviction.

“If people are going to go out and party they need to have a plan, and these options make it easy to do that,” said Reed. “Public transportation and alternative options, such as (these services), are huge.”

Alternative cab services, such as Lyft and Uber, remain illegal in San Antonio but City Council will vote on whether to pass proposed regulations that would allow the services in the city later this month.

Katie Dally, a spokeswoman with the San Francisco-based Lyft, said the service is “reliable and efficient” and “makes it easier than ever before to opt against” drinking and driving.

“Without the sobriety checkpoints, without the public transportation that makes it easier, there are a lot of problems,” Reed said.

Although the outgoing district attorney said she made an impact on the problem in San Antonio, she also is “tired of getting blamed for everyone else’s criminal behavior.”

“You can implement everything you want, but at the bottom line it’s the person who is doing (the crime) is responsible,” she said.

Reed also responded to online commenters who opposed the publishing of felony DWI mugshots in Bexar County, calling the comments “malarkey.”

“I don’t have a lot of sympathy for them,” she said.

*Editor's Note: This story is one in a continuing series of reports focusing on drinking and driving in San Antonio and across Texas. The series also includes felony DWI arrests in Bexar County for October, an interview with former Bexar District Attorney Susan Reed and the deadliest roads in San Antonio.

kparker@express-news.net

Twitter: @KoltenParker