DUI campaign focuses on bars
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TAMPA - The Green Iguana Bar & Grill near the Veterans Expressway has three bars and room for a few hundred patrons. Open less than a year, its tropical island decor evokes spring break. Every weeknight from 5 to 7, patrons can buy Captain Morgan, Jim Beam and Smirnoff vodka drinks for $2 each. Wednesday is “Dollar Drink Night.” Thirty-five times since April, people arrested by Hillsborough sheriff’s deputies for driving under the influence have said the Green Iguana is where they last drank before getting behind the wheel. The Green Iguana on Anderson Road is one of several Hillsborough bars and pubs where dozens of drivers busted for DUI reported having their last drink. For two years, Hillsborough deputies making DUI arrests have been urged, though not required, to fill out a “responsible vendor” card that asks drivers where they last had alcohol. The result is a database of more than 1,200 arrests, which the agency uses to help guide its DUI enforcement in the unincorporated areas where they patrol. While the most common answers were “don’t know,” “private residence,” or “private party,” several bars were named more than 20 times each. The Green Iguana was cited more often than any other bar, and 10 of the 35 people arrested had blood-alcohol levels two times higher than the legal limit for impairment. Next on the list was O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Brandon: 33 DUI arrests since January 2004. Keeping such close tabs on where intoxicated drivers get their last cocktail is part of an ongoing push to curb alcohol-related crashes and fatalities in unincorporated Hillsborough. “We’ve been locking people up for years for DUI, so this is just trying to get at it from a different angle,” said Sheriff David Gee. “This lets the vendors know, “Hey, we’re watching.”‘ Sean Rice, part owner of O’Brien’s Irish Pub, said he got a letter from the Sheriff’s Office a few months ago warning that the high number of DUI incidents could affect the liquor license for his pub or result in civil litigation. But Gee said he doesn’t want to penalize or embarrass drinking establishments. “We’re trying to work with them,” Gee said. “If we can stop it in the restaurant or bar, it’s going to be better off for everyone.” Florida statutes don’t require law enforcement agencies to track where intoxicated drivers drink. The Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office appears to be alone among Tampa Bay agencies in doing so. The Tampa Police Department doesn’t keep such a database. The Pinellas Sheriff’s Office and St. Petersburg and Clearwater police departments ask drivers where they drank when filling out DUI arrest and crash reports, but they do not compile the data or use it to tailor their enforcement strategies, agency officials said. Hillsborough sheriff’s Maj. Bill Davis, who oversees crime prevention and crime analysis, said the agency started keeping track of the information “strictly as a proactive measure.” “It gives us the advantage of knowing where the problem areas are in the county.” Still, Davis is quick to concede the data is only as good as the honesty of the driver providing it. And some of the establishments that come up high on the list, like Whiskey Park North in Carrollwood and the country western club Dallas Bull east of Tampa, serve a larger volume of customers than a tiny neighborhood hole-in-the wall. Dallas Bull, for example, has room for about 700 patrons. Whiskey Park holds 750. Moreover, until now the Sheriff’s Office hasn’t required deputies to take down the information when making a DUI arrest. So the database is partly a reflection of “how diligent” deputies in the agency’s four patrol districts are about querying drivers and recording their answers, Davis said. |