Trends in Ocean City DUI Enforcement and Cases
In Ocean City, Maryland charges of driving under the influence are often seriously punished due to the city’s presence as a tourist location. With this in mind, the following are trends regarding the enforcement of DUI’s in Ocean City.
What Are Some Trends Regarding the Enforcement of DUI’s in Ocean City?
One particular trend I have noticed in terms of Ocean City DUI cases is the use of tapes to prove someone guilty of DUI. Most Ocean City Police Department’s now have cameras in their cars, so when you are stopped you are most likely going to be filmed in some way.
This is a little bit distinctive because I don’t often find this to be the case in other counties such as Worcester County.
How Police Tapes Can Influence the Outcome of DUI Cases
In Ocean City the police tape can be very good for a client sometimes, as it can show that they did really well on a field sobriety test or conducted themselves in a way that didn’t show impairment. This helps because if a jury is looking at the tape they will be able to see that the person’s coordination is not impaired and therefore the stop maybe wasn’t justified.
On the other hand a tape can be incredibly damaging as well because if it shows the person failing to maintain their balance, or being verbally abusive to the officer, then it paints them in a bad light and will obviously hurt their case.
One other thing to keep in mind is that the camera can record the backseat of an officers vehicle as well. So if someone is arrested and they are doing negative things in the back of the police car, such as being combative or even passing out, it can indicate that the person had too much to drink and hurt their case.
The presence of these tapes has now become a big determining factor in whether people in Ocean City are found guilty or innocent in DUI cases.
Ocean City DUI Enforcement Trends
Ocean City’s approach to enforcing the DUI laws is different from many places because they are so emphatic in their maintaining of Ocean City as a safe place for kids and a safe place for families, so DUI cases are handled very seriously.
I think most law enforcement agencies would tell you that they take DUI cases very seriously. Ocean City has this added emphasis because they depend on big tourist dollars to keep Ocean City up and running. This also means that if you are charged with driving under the influence or another related offense, you will definitely want to contact an attorney in order to minimize the harm of your charge.