One would hope that we wouldn’t have to worry the slightest bit about police officers drinking and driving, but it turns out that it is a very valid concern. So much so that Seattle Police Chief John Diaz has sent out a memo telling officers not to do it.
You would think that this would be common sense. After all, we rely on the police to catch drunk drivers for us: to spot them, to pull them over, to arrest them. They’re supposed to protect us from drunk drivers, not be the drunk drivers. But last year, more than eleven employees of the Seattle Police Department were investigated for DUI. If you ask us, that is eleven too many. That number included an officer by the name of John Fox, who was the drunken cause of a multiple car crash. In December, two officers, Sean Moore and Maria Gochnour, crashed their car into a pole while under the influence.
Hence, the memo. It reminded officers that the community’s tolerance for officers driving drunk is “very low.” We would change that to “basically non-existent.” Hopefully we will see the numbers drop this year, and won’t have to hear about our heroes in blue turning into criminals of one of the most nauseating kinds.