DUI Conviction Rates in Ohio

The Washington Court House Record-Herald newspaper analyzed drunken driving data from 2002 collected by the Ohio Supreme Court and found that only "62.5% of those charged with operating a motor while intoxicated ended up being convicted of that charge."

The results identify individual municipalities with high and low conviction rates. Courts in Willoughby and Ironton had the highest percentage of drunken drivers convicted at 97%. The lowest conviction rates were in Chillicothe at 25%, Youngstown at 30%, and Mentor at 31%.

I'm not sure what value this information provides other than that some judges are tougher than others. But everybody should probably already know that. It is curious to me that fully more than a third of all people charged with drunk driving walk away from court without being convicted.

[Update 7/9/03 - This article has produced some finger-pointing and blame avoidance. Most seem to agree that there is no consistency in the collection, processing, and reporting of judicial data and records. Sounds like a management problem within a government bureaucracy. Geez! Who could have guessed? The News-Herald reports the story.]