Does it do any good to report a dangerous driver?

May 3, 2012 2:18 PM

Will calling 911 about a very dangerous driver do any good or am I wasting my time or theirs? Not long ago I found myself behind a car that was regularly switching between driving in the middle of a wide shoulder and crossing the center line 2 or 3 feet into oncoming traffic. I called 911 and even though they said they'd look into it their tone of voice seemed to say otherwise. And tonight I found myself behind a car that was driving even more erratically on a road that I often drive, bike or run on. I didn't call even though I could easily imagine myself or someone else being killed or injured by them. What should I do if I see a dangerous driver again?
posted by 14580 to Law & Government (37 answers total)

I'd take some time before this happens again to speak to your county/town police on the non-emergency number and ask them.

I'm in a small city in a large metro area and I usually end up making a call every other month, have had people have an accident while I'm on the phone with 911.

If I'm on the highway, there's a special number for highway patrol (who has jurisdiction). I also have all the local city non-emergency numbers saved on my phone list for non-emergency but needs attention needs while out and about.
posted by tilde at 2:25 PM on May 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

Does he appear to be a careless driver or to be drunk/impaired? If it's the former, I wouldn't expect much, but they'll usually take a report of the latter much more seriously.
posted by tyllwin at 2:25 PM on May 3, 2012

I say they're drunk, no dangerous. I get the make and model, ID my location by the direction traveled, which lane, nearest exit, etc. so that confusion is difficult. Saying some one is weaving doesn't get the attention a drunk driver does.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:26 PM on May 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

while they might not look into the situation right at the moment, the information you give could prove helpful if that driver causes an accident somewhere down the road and, say, tries to blame the other driver, or kills someone.
posted by fallacy of the beard at 2:27 PM on May 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

First, the tone of a 911 operator doesn't mean anything with respect to how seriously they take your call. They're trained to respond in an even, level manner, regardless of the nature of the call. Second, lots of DUIs, at least in my area, are reported first by a non-police officer calling in a report to 911. Dispatch then sends a local patrol unit over to investigate/confirm the report.
posted by bepe at 2:44 PM on May 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

I always call in these situations, if they look impared I say so. I provide as much info as possible. Now, here in Atlanta on the Watermelon 500 (as we call our local freeway) you do see some really terrible driving, but if it's positively dangerous, I'd call it in.

(It wouldn't hurt to say that there might be kids in the car.)
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:45 PM on May 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

I vote call.
The nature of the problems means they can only look into it if there is an available unit already nearby, so calling won't always be effective, but overall its for the better.

Just don't impair your own driving with the phone.
posted by -harlequin- at 2:51 PM on May 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

You are doing the right thing by reporting impaired-seeming drivers to 911. What the 911 dispatcher and the police department choose to do with that information is up to them.

Agree that saying "I think another driver is driving under the influence; they're veering into the oncoming traffic lane. I'm at {location}; the car with the impaired driver is a blue Honda Accord, license plate {number}" is the most effective approach. If it turns out the person isn't under the influence of anything except being an unsafe or distracted driver, one hopes that being pulled over will be a wakeup call for them to cut that shit out.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:51 PM on May 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

When in doubt, call.

But due diligence on finding out if there's a highway patrol, or local number, to call in these situations, especially areas you travel regularly, is a better idea.

As mentioned, even if you don't see them get into an accident, the information could prove useful if something does happen.
posted by Unsomnambulist at 2:54 PM on May 3, 2012

I saw a reality tv episode once, maybe it was Cops, I can't recall, but what was a suspected drunk driver turned out to be a older man suffering some sort of diabetic attack (for want of a better word) which made him disoriented and unable to function properly. If he hadn't been pulled over by the police, he may have injured or killed himself or someone else.

Since seeing that show, I always call the police about erratic drivers. I strongly recommend you do the same.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 2:54 PM on May 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Call. Whether or not a particular dispatcher sounds impassioned by your call, in general the police want to know about dangerous behavior on the roads. In our jurisdiction right now, there has been a real push to go after reckless drivers, most of whom get identified by 911 calls. Also, calls from motorists about this kind of behavior can lead to a police presence in the future that wouldn't be put in place otherwise. And if, God forbid, something terrible does happen, calls from witnesses can be very important evidence at trial.

Obviously, call safely. For example, have a passenger call. Or pull over to a safe location to make your call. Whenever possible, note license, make, model, and description of driver, as well as direction and location in relation to the nearest intersection/exit.
posted by bearwife at 2:58 PM on May 3, 2012

It varies from place to place, but like malibustacey9999 may have, I've seen an episode of Cops where the police responded to a 9-1-1 call about erratic driving by tracking down the driver. (Though in the one I saw, it ended in a high speed chase and a foot pursuit, not a medical issue!)

I've also called 9-1-1 myself about an erratic driver and they seemed happy to hear about it.
posted by ThisIsNotMe at 2:59 PM on May 3, 2012

My boss was just telling a story at lunch today about how he saw a guy driving erratically (like 10 years ago) and called 911 on him. The erratically-driving guy hit and nearly killed a woman a few miles later up the road. And drove off. But they had his plates and were able to track him down.

Call. Always call.
posted by phunniemee at 3:03 PM on May 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

We have a special number to call here for suspected drunk drivers, and so do other municipalities. Call the non-emergency number or 311 if available, to find out about your local area.
posted by annsunny at 3:11 PM on May 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's up to the 911 operators and the police to triage the calls that come in. Make the call.
posted by HuronBob at 3:11 PM on May 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

I call and use the term "impaired", because they may be drunk, or texting, or sleepy, etc., and the term "impaired driving" covers it all.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 3:17 PM on May 3, 2012

We have a special number to call here for suspected drunk drivers, and so do other municipalities.

There are signs up all over highways around me to cal 911 for drunk drivers, just as a counterpoint.
posted by LionIndex at 3:40 PM on May 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would call.

I called when I was behind a car that pulled out of a bar's parking lot and was aaaaall over the road. However I was right on the border of 3 towns and 2 counties so I was bounced between several departments. Eventually the guy pulled into a house. I gave the dispatcher the address in addition to all the license plate info they already had.

20 minutes later coming the other way there was no police car there. I don't know if they could have done anything anyway.
posted by MonsieurBon at 3:48 PM on May 3, 2012

Yes, call. 911 if you're unsure, the state highway department if you're sure of their exact number (it's usually on signs on the roads you should use it on.) I've reported drunks and wrong-way drivers and they do go after them, at least out here.

The best one is when my sisters and I pulled into a Blockbuster parking lot around 8pm on a Saturday night and four guys got out of a truck all carrying cups of beer, save one who was drinking from a bottle. The driver actually took a drink between the truck and the store's door. Luckily they were parked for a while while being buzzed in a movie rental store - we gave 911 a full description, the make and model, the license, and what the bottle looked like (Mormon chick - I don't know beer labels well enough to give the brand from a distance.) The cops got them a little bit after they pulled out of the parking lot. You usually don't get to find out what happens in these situations, but I'm glad I know they were caught, because come on, man. (No, I can't explain why the store didn't freak out on them, except to say: this is semi-rural Ohio, where we have drive-through liquor stores.)

That was, BTW, my very first non-accidental call to 911. Never before has such a morally unambiguous situation presented itself to me.
posted by SMPA at 4:45 PM on May 3, 2012

Call and get the license plate number. I have called before and the police couldn't do much because I didn't get the plate. Always get the plate if you can.
posted by procrastination at 4:48 PM on May 3, 2012

Nthng the use of "impaired." Let the cops determine the exact nature of the impairment. The call gets it documented and allows them to respond.
posted by SillyShepherd at 4:50 PM on May 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Make the call. The guy was drunk. I've dropped a dime twice on drunk drivers. The first hit a bridge pillar five miles down the road, the second ended up in the ditch. California Highway patrol took both calls seriously and were there in a hurry; still, too late for one driver. The other, as I passed by the scene of the wreck he caused, had the most amazing "oh, I think I fucked up" look.
posted by jet_silver at 5:02 PM on May 3, 2012

Once I was behind a car that was weaving within their lane, often driving right on the dividing line, and frequently changing speeds. My friend (the driver) asked me to call 911. 911 transferred me to the regional jurisdiction, who kept me on the line for a good 15-20 minutes while I diligently reported on the driver's behaviour and our exact location. They sent a cruiser out to meet us, and had both cars (!) pull over. After they interviewed the erratic driver, they came over to our car, thanked us for calling, and explained that the driver wasn't impaired, just really really old. We felt kind of bad about it, but the response was pretty awesome, and we did feel justified calling it in because we could see his driving was affecting other people on the road. So call! (This was in southern Ontario.)
posted by Rora at 5:13 PM on May 3, 2012

Best answer: I am a police officer in a large city in Canada.

Call the police and report it. It's not going to get a huge priority, but from time to time the dispatcher will get a call like that when there's a police car in the area - these are the good days.

There are a couple of things that can happen with these types of calls

1) Nothing, if your description of the driving doesn't catch someone's attention and there are no other calls, and no officer in the area to find the vehicle (or you don't/can't provide a plate) the file will likely get written off with no serious action.

2) Warning letter or an officer speaks to the owner/driver. If the driving is really bad and you got all the info for an officer to find the vehicle, but they don't find it while it's still being driven badly they are unlikely to issue a ticket on your evidence (except in extreme circumstances). The driver may get spoken to or warned in writing though.

3) Driver gets caught, if we're lucky and you're able to give the plate/description/location clearly enough then the driver can get pulled over and an investigation can really start, they could be drunk, high, talking on their cell phone..... Or they could just be a bad/rude driver.

4) Diver gets caught next week....The biggest thing isn't actually what happens that day though, it's what happens later. I personally almost never give a driver their first ticket unless they are really doing something stupid. If the speed limit is 50km/hour I'm unlikely to give anyone a ticket unless they are going well over the speed limit. Part of the decision as to whether a car is going to get pulled over, and when they are pulled over whether the driver is going to get a ticket, is to look at their history. If I pull a car over and see that the vehicle or the driver have been reported multiple times for aggressive driving by other member's of the public, I would count that against them in deciding whether to issue the ticket for what they actually did that day.

To be clear, they won't be getting a ticket next month for cutting you off last week, but if they do get stopped for cutting someone off next month it could be the factor that changes a warning into a ticket.

P.S. Nothing, nothing, nothing is more annoying than someone calling 9-1-1 because they are SURE a driver is intoxicated, drunk off their ass, totally unsafe and definitely going to kill someone and then saying they couldn't be bothered to keep following the vehicle because they were on their way to work/home/school. Feel free to call in bad driver's without following them, but if you really think the car needs to be stopped today then you really need to keep an eye on it until we can get there.

Don't do anything unsafe, don't "chase" them and don't put yourself at risk, but if you think the person is really a danger for heck's sake follow them so we can actually get a police car into the area.

In summary, always call the police to report bad drivers. If you think they are dangerous, follow them (if you can do so safely), and either way rest assured that either today or in the future the information you provided will have consequences for that driver.
posted by BlueSock at 5:41 PM on May 3, 2012 [66 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks BlueSock. You told me what I was really wondering and should have asked -- whether my call will do any good or not.
posted by 14580 at 7:09 PM on May 3, 2012

nth-ing call. A few years ago my ex and I were driving home and there was an impaired driver in front of us. We called 911 and they had us stay on the phone while the officer tried to find us. We described the car and the dispatcher had us signal to the cop when he caught up to us. He did pull over the driver but we never found out what happened.
posted by Nolechick11 at 7:15 PM on May 3, 2012

If I can call 911 because I see a stray dog with no collar and it's the weekend, so the animal shelter is closed; you can call 911 and save some lives from being damaged by some asshole if a police car is close enough/ had enough information. It's the right thing to do, and this is a great reason to call.

PS - that dog's adoption is pending.
posted by oceanjesse at 8:31 PM on May 3, 2012

One Saturday night last summer, I was driving on a highway in Connecticut and saw a driver all over the road. It was heavy traffic, and he almost struck several cars (myself included) and almost went into the barriers a few times.

I've never known what to do in this situation, certainly never called it in, but it was so bad that I decided to do something. I honestly didn't think the police would take me seriously, or if they did, do anything about it. But I called 911, told the dispatcher what I had seen and that he appeared to be driving drunk. I had his license plate, and was able to give it to her, along with a description of the car and driver.

Dispatcher asked me to put on my flashers and try and stay with the vehicle so I could let her know where he was going. I did it, and kept giving her directions when he got on another highway, etc. I was probably with him for about 10-15 minutes when I heard her talking over the radio to a police officer: "He's coming up on you in a few minutes... being followed by a blue SUV with his flashers on... this guy has been reported a shitload of times, and we can finally get him off the road."

After hearing that last sentence, I no longer have any doubt in my mind what to do when I see a drunk driver on the road.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:46 AM on May 4, 2012 [17 favorites]

In New Egland, dailing *77 on your cell phone patches through to the nearest State Trooper barracks. I always call about drunk-looking drivers, huge stuff on the roadway, or dicks from Cape Cod Moving & Storage shining a green laser pointer into passing cars (no kidding).

No, I have never seen a helicopter swoop in or four patrol cars come squealing up as a result of my call, but I figure I'm just providing some more data for the Staties. *shrug*
posted by wenestvedt at 11:38 AM on May 4, 2012

I am a dispatcher for a very large agency in California.

Our policy directs us to not keep callers on the line after they report a hazardous driver. It's not safe for the caller or anyone else. If the caller insists on following we repeat the warning and then tell them that we are disconnecting. On some occasions the officers may directly call back the reporting party. We get the phone number and confirm that in case it is needed.

More than anything else, don't get too excited. That's the kind of thing that will bug a call taker. The threshold most people seem to have for what constitutes an impaired driver overlaps significantly with someone who is just a crappy driver.

Also, it's like I'm told things are with real estate. Location. Location. Location. Know where you are. Know what direction you are travelling. Have the color, make, and body style, preferably the model. If you don't have the license plate, it's not a deal breaker but it would help a lot. Don't do anything stupid to get any of this information.

In then end it depends a lot on a whole lot of things. Where you are, the time of day. If there's already a giant collision being worked somewhere nearby. Are the officers on newer, younger, go-getters just itching to chase something down. Also our transporters have been inoperative for quite some time. We can't just make an officer appear where you think it would be convenient. A surprising number of people expect that sort of thing.
posted by ericales at 6:34 PM on May 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

I called 911 just last week about someone going the wrong way on a divided four-lane. It ended well - she had enough time to get the hell onto the shoulder once she saw cars heading for her in her lane, but not before I gave a description of the car and driver to the dispatcher. I don't know the end result, though.
posted by deadmessenger at 7:58 PM on May 4, 2012

When in California (and possibly other states as well), cell-phone calls to 911 get automatically directed to the Highway Patrol dispatcher. It's a good idea to take the time to pre-enter the non-911 emergency numbers for the cities/towns you spend time in into your cell phone.
posted by Lexica at 3:55 PM on May 5, 2012

Lexica, that is no longer the case. It really depends on where you are. Most agencies now accept their wireless 911 calls. If you are in a good sized city and not close to a freeway it will likely hit the correct agency. If you are close to a freeway there is a good chance you'll talk to CHP first. If you are in Oakland or Sacramento it doesn't matter where you are, it will go to CHP. These last cities have the technology, but not the staffing, to answer wireless 911's.
posted by ericales at 7:35 PM on May 5, 2012

I called in a bad driver a few years ago - driving slowly on the freeway, weaving onto the shoulder and into my lane, etc - I stayed with him and was there when he got stopped by about 3 police cars - turns out he was reacting to medication. Shouldn't have been driving, and the reaction was getting worse. The EMT I talked to said that if he hadn't stopped (or been stopped) it would have been much worse because he was about to black out.
posted by disclaimer at 7:42 PM on May 6, 2012

I guess I'm going to be contrarian here, but I guess I'm the only one on metafilter who doesn't have a foolproof, 100 % accurate intoximeter that works by looking at another car. Nor do I have sufficient knowledge of my local jurisdiction's traffic laws to guarantee that I myself, do not occasionally breach the law.

Without #1 and #2, I certainly don't feel good about calling in another driver. Especially after what bluesock said about it potentially having consequences.

That guy swerving like a drunk in the other lane? Maybe he just got an emergency call that his daughter died at preschool.

That guy raging through a yellow and honking? Maybe he's on to his first job interview after two years of unemployment. He's lost everything and been sleeping in his car for two months.

In short, I'm not a police officer. I lack the training--observationally, legally, and ethically-- to enforce laws. Hence, I pay taxes so experts can do it for me.
posted by mrdaneri at 10:30 AM on May 7, 2012

As a vulnerable road user (cyclist and pedestrian) I would urge you to get over the idea that reporting a vehicle that is being driven erratically and dangerously is somehow snitching or tattling or any other negative "don't do that" verb related to conveying information.

"That guy swerving like a drunk in the other lane" is swerving like a drunk and endangering others, regardless of his reason for doing so. "That guy raging through a yellow and honking" is driving dangerously and endangering others, regardless of his reason for doing so.

I hope everybody who sees a motor vehicle being driven dangerously reports it.
posted by Lexica at 11:39 AM on May 7, 2012 [3 favorites]

We called in a report about an erratic driver, and we called back later and learned the driver was very tired. Maybe seeing the blue lights and getting pulled over woke her up enough to finish her drive safely.

I called in a report about an aggressive driver passing cars unsafely and driving far too fast. I couldn't follow safely and didn't get the plate #. Maybe mine was the 2nd or 3rd call, and the driver got pulled over. I don't know. I hope no cyclist got run off the road, or if there was a very ill person in the speeding car, I hope they made it to the hospital okay.

I used to walk to work, maybe 1/4 mile. It was so unsafe to cross a busy street, with a pedestrian light, that I used to call the police a lot. It influenced my decision to move out of town, so now I commute 11 miles. Safe roads and crosswalks make a community better; please don't accept unsafe driving. Call the police.
posted by theora55 at 6:14 PM on May 13, 2012