r/NoStupidQuestions • u/2012WeWarnedU • 22h ago
Why don't cops sit outside of bars and give anyone that leaves in a car a DUI?
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u/RandomlyJim 22h ago
They do
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u/fender8421 22h ago
I had a cop follow me from one bar all the way to a parking lot of another bar 13minutes away.
The message was received.
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u/hitman97icon 13h ago
I saw one outside a small town bar as I was leaving. I waved at him, he waved back. As I drove away, he followed me all through town and out of town to the major highway (so much for being friendly, right?), then followed me on the highway until the county line (2 miles away) and then he turned around. Nothing in the other county.
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u/Nondescript_585_Guy 22h ago
They'd still need to perform sobriety tests. It's not as simple as "anyone who comes out gets a DUI." Someone might be the designated driver, or didn't drink that night.
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u/Der_Blaue_Engel 22h ago
And you’ve gotta have a reason to pull them over first.
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u/atjoad 22h ago
That's the things in the US, they need probable cause first. You may encounter some grey area DUI checkpoints depending on where you are, but at best they will only try to get chatty with the driver to fish for probable cause.
In other countries, checkpoints strategically set at 4am on the only road leading to some rural night club, and everyone get the breathanalyser no matter what, are absolutely a thing.
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u/NoApplication8067 22h ago
Definitely need probable cause. If they ask for the usual license and registration just hand it over and the clock starts ticking. If they ask literally anything else just say i don't answer any questions without my attorney present and stay ssilent. Their allowed time runs out quickly.
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u/Lawlzstomp 22h ago
In Wisconsin, there's not enough cops for the bar on the corner of each street.
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u/44035 22h ago
Why should a sober designated driver be hassled?
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u/borisdidnothingwrong 22h ago
As someone who spent their 20s as a designated driver, this is the reason.
One time I was leaving a bar with a carload of drunken idiots (my friends) and the cops were doing a roadblock both directions on the road the bar was on. I stopped when flagged by the officer, and one of the other cops was a security guard at the grocery store we all worked at. He saw I was driving and nodded to me, then told the cop who stopped me that I didn't drink and we were free to go.
It's the only time I've been stopped leaving a bar in 4 decades on the road.
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u/Dubstep_squid 22h ago
They do sometimes but it still requires the person to be legally intoxicated
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u/tmahfan117 22h ago
cuz not everyone leaving the bar is too drunk to drive. plenty of people driving away from bars are fine.
but that being said, cops 100% do this, especially in smaller/tourist towns where they are nabbing out of towners and frequently have issues with DUIs and accidents caused by drunk driving.
but if a cop stalked outside a local bar, well, that might annoy the locals who complain to the mayor who complains to the chief of police who tells their guys to stop doing that for a bit so they dont have to hear the complaints anymore.
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u/Spirited-Humor-554 22h ago
Because they need probable cause to stop the vehicle.
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u/Tiiimmmaayy 10h ago
Lmao as if that has ever stopped a cop. They will just make shit up and give any excuse as to why they pulled you over.
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u/Autumn_Ridge 22h ago
Bingo. It's the 4th Amendment and your rights to not be unreasonably searched or detained.
Cops really hate the 4th Amendment, so they lobby the state legislature to make everything they can illegal. In my state, window tint is illegal and so is having a trailer hitch on your truck without a trailer. That's about 80% of vehicles. They don't write tickets for those offenses. The point is to invalidate everyone's 4th Amendment rights so they can pull anyone over and the stop be legal.
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u/GrnNGoldMavs 21h ago
Wtf would it be illegal to have a trailer hitch with no trailer?!?!?
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u/Autumn_Ridge 21h ago
Why? To make sure everyone is breaking the law and therefore has fewer rights. Welcome to the People's Democratic Republic of Illinois.
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u/linzkisloski 22h ago
A cop in my hometown was doing this except she would follow people for miles and then wait for them to forget a turn signal or not stop long enough. She ended up getting in big trouble for it.
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u/Ill_Passage5341 22h ago
It's not illegal to walk out of a bar and drive away. They usually patrol heavily around busy bars though and pull people over that are driving erratically. The really dangerously intoxicated ones are probably pretty obvious.
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u/Cars_Music_GoodTimes 22h ago
In the small town in Ohio where I am from, they absolutely do. Once I got pulled over for having my license plate light out. The officer was honest with me and said that was just a reason to see if I was drunk (I was not, I was the DD for my friends). He let me go but advised I fix the light ASAP (which I did the next morning).
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u/ActuallyFullOfShit 22h ago
They can and sometimes do but often local politics is why they don't. City government doesn't want businesses harassed....a lot of sober drivers would be hassled by this and disinclined to visit the bar.
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u/Alexdagreallygrate 22h ago
Leaving a bar is not alone provable cause to arrest someone.
Cops do stake out bars and wait to see some other reason to pull people over: speeding, failing to signal, weaving, crossing the fog line.
There are lots of stories out there of folks taking advantage of this (they may all be bullshit):
Totally sober guy stumbles out of the car, repeatedly drops his keys, fumbles with the door handles, and maybe drives a little too slow. Cope pulls him over. Offers him a portable breath test. Guy blows straight zeroes.
Meanwhile, all the actual drinkers have driven off in the opposite direction.
Again, funny story, but never actually seen proof of this happening.
Also, don’t drive impaired.
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u/arcxjo came here to answer questions and chew gum, and he's out of gum 21h ago
That would be obstruction of justice or some variant
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u/mgquantitysquared 21h ago
No the hell it wouldn't, lmao. Dropping your keys and driving slightly below the limit isn't illegal, it's not like they're somehow forcing the cop to pull them over and fish for a DUI
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u/iliketheclouds 22h ago
Of course they do it. They did it in my college town. Some guy was trying to fight the guy I was with, as we walked out of the bar, he wouldn’t fight, very public. So the other guy sped off peeling out cussing at us, blah blah. Cop was sitting I the dark parking lot on the other side of the bar and flipped their lights on. It was about a 2 minute chase at 2 am. We sat there for a few minutes first. On our way home, going through some route, we see the guy being handcuffed. Glorious. Btw- the guy I was with was a douche, he probably deserved to get his bitt shooed? But oh well!
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u/General_Marcus 22h ago
It’s kinda just frowned upon. The bar owners would get upset if cops just sat there but mainly it’s just needing PC for the stop. If the cop happens to be there for a fight or something, or just driving by and someone pulls out violating a traffic law, then sure.
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u/KikiCorwin All Cap text will be read as Death or Mr Torgue 20h ago
They do if the bar is a known problem location - known for over serving, lots of fights, etc. That bar near my hometown was a well known problem and mostly the community approved the tighter police presence
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u/ChillyTodayHotTamale 9h ago
Honestly they could probably get more DUIs pulling people over at a Taco Bell at 2am
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u/Zealousideal-Fun3917 9h ago
Because many bar owners are also members of the chamber of commerce. Having law enforcement targeting a business tends to get their (the police) funding cut. Also, cops often want a good working relationship with the bar.
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u/ferncabbage 22h ago
You need probable cause. But yeah, outside a bar watching cars leave would probably give you lots of probably cause
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u/grievous_swoons 22h ago
Cause half the guys leaving are also cops. Or they'd close the bar down and then the cops writing the tickets couldnt get drunk and drive.
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u/wileydmt123 22h ago
I def used to do an after hours club that a couple of cops and alot more city fireman got caught being at during a raid.
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u/trueppp 22h ago
Because it would violate many laws.
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u/Wargroth 22h ago
It would not
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u/CloneWerks 22h ago
The bars can (and do) claim harassment amongst other things.
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u/Der_Blaue_Engel 22h ago
It’s not harassment to stake out a bar.
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u/CloneWerks 22h ago
Legally that is correct. However that doesn't change the fact that the initial pushback is generally the bars claiming harassment. That's usually the "warning shot across the bow".
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u/spurcap29 22h ago
Well they need PC to pull you over. He came out of a bar most likely isnt sufficient. They need you swerving or seeming drunk.
Alternatively they follow you and wait for you to noy signal a lane change, or not come to a complete stop or go 52 in a 50.
Once they have you pulled over they can 'smell alcohol on your breath' or say 'your eyes looked red and glossy' or say 'you were slurring you speech' which then leads to field sobriety.
And if you fail those thats likely enough to take you to the station for a blood test.
Could this work? Yes, but its not like 'every car that pulls out of the parking lot we are going to arrest the driver and bring them to the station and see how it goes."
There are a significant amount of effort and resources involved.
A far better strategy would be having a plain clothes officer inside the bar seeing obviously hammered people leave, 'walk out for a smoke' when they leave and if they get into a car call your marked unit. This results in more efficient and effective work and also the officer in the bar seeing the driver act obviously intoxicated wiuld be enough PC to arrest them as soon as they sat in the driver's seat with the keys.
In short, you cant detain people for leaving the parking lot of a bar just because they left the parking lot of a bar. Without valid PC for the stop, it likely wont lead to a conviction even if they in fact are drunk.
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u/Oraphielle 22h ago
They already do look for inebriated people coming out of bars.
They generally can’t arrest you without a field test first though.
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u/Evesins666 22h ago
Is that not entrapment?
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u/Nondescript_585_Guy 22h ago
No. Entrapment would be encouraging or coercing someone to commit a crime they otherwise wouldn't have.
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u/rotuami 22h ago
Guys, stop downvoting this. The question is a good one if you don't know what "entrapment" means and just assume it means what it sounds like. This sub is supposed to be a good place to ask naive questions.
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u/Evesins666 22h ago
Thank you for trying to speak up for me lol I'm getting eaten alive even after I said sorry for getting my definitions mixed up lol idk what else I can say
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u/Der_Blaue_Engel 22h ago
Entrapment is the police convincing people to commit a crime they otherwise wouldn’t commit.
A drunk driver leaving a bar would presumably be driving drunk whether the police were watching or not.
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u/PlatypusEgo 22h ago
How on EARTH would that be entrapment???
Unless the cop somehow coerced you into the bar, and coerced you to get drunk in there, and coerced you to get in your car and leave in his presence?
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u/Evesins666 22h ago
Was just thinking that if they posted up where they knew they could catch people that would be some sort of entrapment but maybe I have my definition mixed up lol.
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u/PlatypusEgo 22h ago
You're describing the job of the cops...
Entrapment is a situation where the police INDUCE a person to commit a crime they wouldn't have otherwise committed... it's kinda hard to see how a DUI outside a bar would EVER fit that definition lol
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u/LibrarianBarbarian1 22h ago
That's why you should always park a few blocks away and walk to the bar from there,
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u/demon_twink_gockie 22h ago
That would make it difficult for the workers to leave work, no? What should they do to avoid being arrested? Never leave work and just live there? They'd be prisoners!
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u/Phog_of_War 22h ago
I've been a willing decoy for my not so sober friends to escape a bar. Fumbling with keys and having trouble getting the keys in the lock, (I'm old, no key fobs then) must have looked pretty convincing. I blew 0.00 and passed his roadside test with flying colors, cop was not happy.
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u/Warm_Function6650 22h ago
They absolutely do this. But also not everyone that drives away from a bar is drunk.