Members of the Houston, Texas DWI Task Force routinely make money from of each drunk driving arrest. In some cases earning one and a half times their normal income.
Unlike regular patrolmen, members of the Houston, Texas DWI Task Force are eligible for state and federal funds that pay overtime for DWI oriented operations. By attending DWI court proceedings or participating on DWI roadblocks or patrols on their days off, they can add substantially to their base pay. One senior officer, William Lindsey, Jr., boosted his income to $172,576, which is almost $120,000 more than the base salary for the position. And it is $7,000 more than the mayor of Houston receives in salary.
For each Houston DWI arrest, task force members must make a court appearance. For that appearance they earn overtime pay. Whereas the general practice across the state of Texas is to send one officer to a drunk driving trial, in Houston often three or four policemen will testify at a single trial.
Houston DWI defense attorneys believe that the Houston, Texas DWI Task Force is operating like a rural speed trap, aggressively making traffic stops and assuming the drivers are driving drunk knowing that they will make extra money in court for each arrest.
Perhaps not surprisingly, top DWI cop Lindsey is also one the most reprimanded member of the task force. No one has come close to the number of complaints sustained by an internal affairs investigation. Those complaints range from threatening to kill a man accused of jaywalking to third degree felony for falsifying overtime records.
Despite his list of disciplinary infractions, Lindsey is praised by prosecutors seeking DWI convictions. Purportedly he is a convincing and ‘reliable’ witness in drunk driving cases.
May 26, 2012
Its not just in Texas. These “officers” came to my house, arrested me in my house, for someone complained I was driving irraticly/on the shoulder…. well, CA drivers pas me across double yellow lines,fingers, headlights flashing. I REFUSE to go over the speed limint!! I am 70, never drove these dangerous winding roads,/e.g. two automobiles drove over,plunged into the lake in Sonora this summer….there is more, U dont see it in the newspapers/ SO when moving here I drove just as much on the shoulder , whenever it was possible, as i drove on the road. IAMSTILLDOGIT!!!!!!/Will never admit it to MVD, who is after me right now/…refuse to go over the speed limint. /hey, gas is too expensive by the way/…Sometimes I have to drive real real slow /Ihate to do it/ on the shoulder and wait till all cars pas me by…even took a defensive drivng course.
Well some former old frt, no gentlemen “bigshot” in this little country town, reported me to police for bad driving…The “pigs/dogs” came, …AND at the time I dd not know why,the did not tell me…!!!! /me single 70 yrs old gamma . ..alone…hmm..in G
OOD shape though guys!!/ , they went through my home, looking forwhatever,just like the KGB did in my childhood, and since I was somewhat drunk, drinking at my home!!!!!!!!!! /do it at least once a week, also had some bad news../ these so called policeman arrested and charged me w/ “DUI”…How that can be????? “D” is supposed to mean: d r i v i n g….what criminals our police became???? is this all about money????!!..scary. In my youth in America, we were able to go to our police w/ any concern even personal problem. True we always lived in a nice neighbourhood where our /yah, middle aged/ policeman were looked at as gentlemen…/ Still this is not right. NEVER EVER I will trust a policeman again, especially not in CA…maybe that is how they can make money, distroying other peoples lives. At some point I will tell my tree wonderful /”A” students!!/ grndsons about this, not now, for they are too little, and they might need these /monsters,idiots/ creatures…but I will later, tell them never ever ever trust these people. Gamma