Shorewood Police Hold the Line on DUIs

The Shorewood Police Department made a strong showing in the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorist's annual driving under the influence survey.

Shorewood police officers made 47 drunken driving arrests in 2010, putting them in a tie with Mattoon for 116th place among all municipalities in Illinois.

But with a mere 26 police officers on the Shorewood department, those 47 arrests averaged out to 1.81 per officer. That number would have put Shorewood in the top 30 of all municipalities in the state with 200 or more arrests if the local department had a high enough total to qualify.

The 1.81 arrests per officer is also 0.71 better than the Will County Sheriff's Department, an agency that not only ranked fifth in arrest rate among county sheriff's departments, but also had the 13th busiest DUI writing cop in Deputy Steve "Dr. DUI" Kirsch. Kirsch made 140 drunken driving arrests in 2010, according to the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists.

Kirsch outdid the rest of the Will County Sheriff's Department all by himself, as all the other deputies put together only made 102 drunken driving arrests, the survey showed.

Shorewood Police Chief Robert Puleo commended his department for consistently strong drunken driving enforcement.

"We've been at that level for a number of years," Puleo said. "I would hope that those numbers send a message to people not to drink and drive in Shorewood."