By Brian Miller
NBC-26
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY, Wis. — It’s the ultimate citizen patrol; a Fox Valley man is doing his part to help get drunk drivers off the streets.
Videos show a man following suspected drunken drivers while he calls 911 and waits for the police to arrive. He’s helped nab nearly 40 suspected drunk drivers and police say his efforts are a big help.
The man goes by the moniker “OWI Hunter” on Facebook where he posts videos showing an average citizen with a full time job who spends his weekend nights looking for drunk drivers.
Brad is the OWI Hunter. He says saw too many stories about drunk drivers killing others in crashes and decided to do something about it.
“What if I go out one night and if I see a car swerving or what not I could report it to the police, and it worked the first time, since then I’ve been involved in the arrest of 39 individuals for OWI,” Brad said.
Brad has been doing this for about a year. He doesn’t give his last name out of fear of retaliation from suspected drunken drivers he’s helped arrest.
“We have an excellent police force and they do the best that they can with the funds that they get, but they can’t be everywhere, so being out there, I’m hoping as one individual just to make their job a little easier and report some of these things that I see,” he said.
Police are thankful for his efforts.
“Obviously this individual is an advocate for safe streets, it’s interesting that he’s putting this much time and effort into it, I applaud it, obviously, the video aspect of it’s a pretty significant tool for us,” said Outagamie county sheriff Bradley Gehring.
The OWI Hunter mounts a video camera on his dashboard during his operation. The videos have been used in court as evidence.
Brad hopes others can learn to do what he does and put even more eyes on the roads looking for drunken drivers.
Police urge safety first for anyone who does these kinds of things. Never approach a suspected drunk driver yourself or attempt to get them to pull over, some things are better left to the police.
Reprinted with permission from NBC-26