Austin Police releases list of bars with most DWIs

Every time a person is arrested for drinking and driving, they’re asked where they were drinking. In the last year, two bars moved to the top of the list, and both of them are on 4th Street.

In 2006, two bars, Rain and Cedar Street, tied for the most DWI arrests, according to data from the Austin Police Department. Both are located in the Warehouse District, and they’re right across the street from each other.

Other bars on the list include the Blind Pig, the Yellow Rose, Club Carnaval, the Library, Oil Can Harry’s, Club Rodeo, Spill, and Sherlock’s.

The DWI Task Force has been extremely busy since doubling its manpower in March 2006.

“We’re doing what the TABC and APD asks of us,” said the owner of Rain in a statement to KVUE. “We put our employees through TABC certification. We offer vouchers for free rides. We give away plenty of water. We are doing everything we are capable of but apparently we are going to ramp that up a little bit.”

What is deceiving about this list is that, more often than not, a person when asked where they have been drinking, only lists the last place they drink. They don’t list all the other places they went before going to the last bar. In most cases, the police officer merely asks the person “where have you been drinking?” Then, the person names the last bar from which they just left, leaving out the name of all the other bars they visited. Consequently, as with all statistics, the devil is in the details.

Further, there statistics don’t address how many of the people arrested for drunk driving were actually convicted of DWI.

Be warned, the APD DWI Task Force will be out in full force on Super Bowl weekend.

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