what we learned last night was that drunk driving is a menace to officer safety we learn it time and again at officer funerals you know there's been over 100 officers killed in the last five years by drunk drivers you know drunk driving is a plague for the entire society but it's a particular menace to my people who are out late at night on patrol last night demonstrated that this guy was totally out of his mind drunk there's no excuse for how fast he was going how hard he hit that car and it's only by the grace of god that we're not here you know outside a funeral home instead of outside the hospital so again i thank the legislators that are here with me today stasinot for taking strong positions to uh i think safeguard public safety as well as police officer safety you know increasing the sanctions and giving us a tool you know not having the ability to do roadblocks is basically a wink in a nod to drunk drivers it's that simple not giving us that tool is tacit approval of drunken driving you want to know what changes first the culture of the law the law changes first law can change culture we've proved that again and again in our society you change the law and you create sanctions behavior changes we've got to change this behavior good afternoon i've just come from the bedside of officer val zarage she's been on the job since december of 2007 and last night she was hit by a five-time convicted drunk driver she's in the hospital with broken bones the doctors haven't determined whether or not they're going to do surgery but i can tell you she's in a lot of pain i'm also here to say it's high time this state got serious about drunk driving now i know it's a common place that when someone in your family is a victim you take the crime seriously and personally well officer zorich is in my family and i take it personally last year 20 officers were killed in the line of duty by drunken drivers it's fair to say that after two o'clock in the morning what we've got on the streets are drunk drivers and cops now it's all well and good for elected officials to come to police memorial days that we're having all over the country this month and lament the deaths of police officers it's quite another thing to take concrete steps to prevent those deaths criminalizing drunk driving is an important step in that direction now i have with me today a couple of state representatives who have tried and are trying to do something about that we have with us today representative tony stascunas democrat from west allis who last year supported wisconsin act 100 which somewhat strengthened our laws but i think even he would agree did not strengthen them enough today we also have with us representative jim ott republican from maequam who has proposed a law that criminalizes our first offense drunk driving if the bac is .15 or above and which does something else that's critical if this state gives a dam about driver safety it allows owi check points it allows the police to conduct drunk driving checkpoints and as you know the federal government frequently provides funding to do just that it's a proven winner when it comes to decreasing the amount of drunk driving and the number of drunk driving fatalities last year there were more drunk driving deaths in this state than there were murders and that's been true every year of the last several years dead is dead preventable deaths require strong laws whether it has to do with firearms or drinking and driving if we're serious about protecting people from violent death we have to have strong laws in place to alter the mental calculations of those who would drink and drive so i'm pleased to have the representatives here with me today i'm pleased to have the mayor here with me today officer zorage should recover but if you've seen her car you know how close she came to death last night and that's just simply intolerable mayor thank you chief and i want to applaud the leadership of these two state representatives who recognize that drunk driving is a serious issue in the state and the actions that took place yesterday the near tragedy took place underscores once again why it is imperative that state government take this issue seriously we cannot have people using vehicles as weapons and when people are drunk and they're driving vehicles that's exactly what happens they've turned their vehicle into a weapon so i call once again on the legislature to strengthen the drunk driving laws to ensure in particular that repeated drunk drivers are dealt with very seriously and that it is in fact a criminal offense hi everyone thanks for being here today i'm state representative tony stascuna so i'm very happy to be here with mayor barrett chief lynn and representative ott uh it's unfortunate that we're here under these type of circumstances but the fact of the matter is that these type of accidents happen across our state every day and they're going to continue to happen unless the legislature and more than just the legislature the entire public gets serious about the culture of drinking we have in our state i've been working since 1997 when i was first elected on drunk driving legislation and believe me it was very frustrating and very slow going in the beginning we finally got a little momentum going in the last two sessions particularly last session with the passage of act 100 which moved the felony threshold up to the fourth time but we need to eliminate that five-year look back and even push it further to a third time which representative ott has legislation to do and i've joined him on that last session representative gundrum and i now judge gunderman waukesha had legislation to criminalize an owi one for the first time we had a hearing on the bill legislature wasn't ready for it last time we're going to try to move move the ball down the field a little bit more on it on that issue this time around and representative ott has a bill in that regard which i've joined him on fighting drunk driving is not just law enforcement they need they need partners they need the legislature they need the court system they need the public to realize that this culture of drinking in wisconsin has to change i've been asked a lot over the last few years what changes first the culture of drinking or do the laws change and i i don't know the answer to that but i do know that the part that representative odd and i have some oversight in is the legislative area so we're going to try to move some of these bills and we're going to move the legislature a little farther down the road the other thing i want to mention is that you can't fight this on the cheap we are going to need to fund this prison space costs money prosecutors cost money more judges more extended supervision more treatment all of that costs money so if the legislature is going to get serious we are going to have to find ways to fund these these efforts because you cannot fight this on the cheap and if we're going to do it right we need to be we need to be strict we need to be tough and we need to fund what we're going to do good afternoon everyone first of all certainly our thoughts and prayers are with the officers and and with their families and we certainly thank them for their brave service to the city um i appreciate the fact that this is a bipartisan issue and i was certainly a strong supporter of act 100 uh which was introduced by representative stas last session and uh what we we are going to do is try to move things farther along this session senator alberta darling is taking the lead in the state senate i'm taking the lead in the state assembly the first bill we've introduced will make third and fourth conviction a felony and that will allow judges the discretion to lock repeat offenders up for a longer period of time those cases where you just have to get the people off the roads we're also going to raise the felony issue for every subsequent offense from number five and beyond again that will give the judges discretion to to have to put longer sentences on those people that we just plain and simply have to get off the roads the other bill the uh criminalizing 0.15 and above blood alcohol content level we really want to send a strong message that even though it's first offense when you're at .15 and above you're seriously impaired so this is more than a person just going out and having one or two too many beers this is somebody who's seriously impaired it should be a criminal offense and that's what we're going to try to do i do want to emphasize that part of our effort here is is not just a matter of putting more people in prison for longer periods of time we really do want to change the culture in wisconsin it's not acceptable to drive while impaired and so we're hoping with these bills particularly criminalizing the first offense of 0.15 and above that there's going to be a deterrent effect and that we're going to send a message and i'm really hopeful that we're going to get help from the department of transportation in in really publicizing what we're doing to send a strong message that if you're going to be out and drinking make plans have a designated driver don't get behind the wheel while you're impaired and i think this is an ongoing process and i do appreciate the the uh support from representatives to kunis in signing on to the bills as co-sponsor again this is a bipartisan effort and i think the other thing i want to say is i don't consider these two bills to be the end of the road this is this is a part of a process that's going to continue and when we get these bills passed we're going to see what else we can do because i think again it's a it's a problem that's kind of endemic to our our society here in wisconsin and one or two bills isn't going to solve it one bill last session didn't solve it it's an ongoing process so we are looking at other initiatives that we'll be able to take as well thank you you