Oak Lawn Leads South Suburbs in 2015 DUI Arrests: Survey

Oak Lawn landed in the top 20 of Illinois municipalities and led the south suburbs in for DUI arrests in 2015.

Oak Lawn police officers logged 218 arrests for motorists driving under the influence, a 7.9-percent increase over 2014, when 202 arrests were made. Arrests averaged at two per officer out of the current 109 sworn officers.

Read the complete 2015 AAIM DUI arrest survey

The south suburban police departments in the Patch network that responded to the 2015 survey ranked as followed:

• #17 -- Orland Park - 195 (1.89 arrests per 103 sworn officers)
• #19 -- Palos Heights - 189 (6.52 arrests per 29 sworn officers)
• #35 -- Chicago Heights - 139 (1.72 per arrests per 81 sworn officers)
• #66 -- Tinley Park - 76 (0.96 per 79 sworn officers)
• #70 -- Homewood - 70 (1.79 arrests per 39 sworn officers)
• #71 -- Evergreen Park - 69 (1.05 arrests per 66 sworn officers)
• #81 -- New Lenox - 59 (1.59 arrests per 37 sworn officers)
• #104 -- Oak Forest - 35 ((0.83 arrests per 42 sworn officers)
• #107 -- Flossmoor - 32 ( 1.68 arrests per 19 sworn officers)
• #108 -- Mokena - 31 (1.03 arrests per 30 sworn officers)
• #111 -- Palos Park - 28 (1.27 arrests per 27 sworn officers)
• #119 - Palos Hills - 20 (.065 arrests per 31 sworn officers)

AAIM also noted:

The highest DUI arrest rate in the state among departments making at least 200 arrests was Carol Stream, which had 7.61 arrests per sworn officer. Since 2007, Carol Stream has been one of the top three departments in DUI arrests per officer. This small department continues their significant impact in saving lives.

Arrests made by the Chicago Police decreased minimally by 0.2% in 2015 (3315) compared to 2014 (3,321), Illinois State Police arrests increased by 13.88% in 2015 (6,584) compared to 2014 (5,784).

The sheriff’s department reporting the most DUI arrests was Lake County (367), while Cook (331), Winnebago (278), Will (205) and Champaign (204) Counties round out the top five sheriff departments.

Illinois State Police Trooper Eric David was Illinois’ Top Cop with 310 DUI arrests. AAIM also commends the life-saving efforts of Chicago Police Officer Timothy Walter, who arrested 232 drunk drivers, and Chicago Police Officer Elliot Tupayachi, who arrested 226 drunk drivers.

AAIM is an Illinois-only citizen activist group founded in 1982 by victims of drunk driving. The group promotes prevention, victim advocacy and legislation for tougher drunk driving laws and is a recognized expert in this area.

AAIM’s annual DUI arrest survey is funded by a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation.