Booze Bust: SJ City Council Addresses High Arrest Rate

{snip}

Latino groups in San Jose put the police chief on the defensive Tuesday as they claimed they are being unfairly arrested for being drunk in public.

Community groups spent hour speaking out against the city’s high number of arrests for being drunk in public.

{snip}

Last year San Jose arrested 4,661 people for public drunkenness, far more than any other city in California. Critics say police officers are enforcing the law too aggressively and clogging up the court system.

57 percent of those arrested were Latino, which also led to allegations of racial profiling. Latinos make up only 32 percent of the city’s population.

San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis has denied racial profiling and considers the arrests a serious way to deal with a legitimate threat to public safety.

The city is currently facing a federal lawsuit, filed last month by three men who said they were wrongly charged with public drunkenness.

A main concern for the community groups and activists opposed to the arrest policy is that officers are allowed to use their own discretion in making an arrest for being drunk in public. A blood or breath test does not need to be administered, something Davis believes could be changed.

{snip}

Councilman Sam Liccardo represents the city’s downtown district, where 36% of the arrests have occured. Liccardo says he supports opening the sobering centers and requiring some proof of intoxication for arrest.

“There isn’t a clear definition,” Councilwoman Nora Campos said. “The law is very vague and its important for us to have a law that’s defined so it protects the police officer making the arrest, as well as the citizen.”