Good Afternoon,
Tomorrow is St. Patrick Day and the celebration of this popular holiday for many will be done with the consumption of alcohol. Most people will participate in this celebration responsibly; however, some party-goers simply will not. They will engage in the irresponsible and dangerous behavior of drinking too much alcohol and then getting behind the wheel of an automobile. This poses a serious threat to the safety of all citizens. Last year on St. Patrick’s Day, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office arrested 29 motorists for drunk driving, including the felony arrest of a drunk driver for his 6th operating while intoxicating offense. 46-year-old Brian Osgood. In keeping with the leniency continually demonstrated by our circuit court judges in Milwaukee County, he could have served up to six years in prison. Instead, he received what I refer to as the “bed and breakfast”sentence. He is let out during the day and only has to report back at night to sleep at our correctional facility in Franklin. Maybe his 7th arrest will bring a more substantial sentence to prison. My hope is that his 7th arrest doesn’t involve him killing some innocent person. Milwaukee County does not have to contribute to the outrageous number of drunk driving crashes that plague Wisconsin. Drunk driving is not a mistake. People make a conscious decision to drink too much alcohol and then drive. Drunk driving is a preventable crime. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2008, 11,773 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in the United States. In Wisconsin, alcohol-related crashes killed 234 people and injured more than 4,000 in 2008 according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and the Southeast Multi-Jurisdictional OWI Task Force will be fully deployed on St. Patrick’s Day. Our joint enforcement efforts will begin at 6 a.m. and continue through 4 a.m. Thursday. A total of 120 squads will be deployed to detect and arrest drunk drivers. 43 squads from MCSO and 77 from participating law enforcement agencies. Our targeted driving under the influence enforcement deployment will concentrate its efforts within the area of “Death Valley” and on the major thoroughfares that run adjacent to the freeway system. “Death Valley” runs along I-94 east and westbound between the lake and Waukesha County line. 65% of our drunk driving arrests occur in this stretch. We are not discouraging the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. However, you need to have a plan in place, before you start drinking. For instance:
I would like to thank the Milwaukee County Transit System and MillerCoors for their ongoing community awareness effort towards drunk driving prevention and free alternative transportation. Since the Free Rides program began 23 years ago, lives have been saved, and injuries and property damage have been avoided. I want to thank all of the participating agencies of the Southeast Multi-Jurisdictional OWI Task Force who have teamed up with us in this public safety effort. This task force is the first of its kind in the State to combat drunk driving and would not be successful without your support and involvement of…
Unlike some, we in law enforcement have not and will not forget the lives that have been lost due to the reckless behavior of impaired drivers. Many of us get to move on after the story disappears from the newspaper. Paul & Judy Jenkins have to live with this for the rest of their lives. Their daughter and grandchildren, Jennifer Bukowsky and her two children, lives were taken because of former doctor Mark Benson’s decision to get behind the wheel of his car in an impaired condition. Mr. & Mrs. Jenkins your strength is remarkable. I would like to ask Judy Jenkins for a few words.
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