St. Louis gets tougher on drunk drivers

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The City of St. Louis is cracking down on drunk drivers.

Now, Mayor Francis Slay has instructed the city attorney to stop letting first time offenders get away with drunk driving. In the past, many have been able to hire a lawyer and plead down their case to a lesser charge to keep the DUI off their record.

"This is basically truth in sentencing, truth in charging," Slay said. "If you get caught with a DUI, you're going to get charged with a DUI and processed as a DUI. It's going to hopefully send the right message and make St. Louis safer."

But some say it's sending the wrong message to people who make a one time mistake.

"He's going after the first time offenders who are not the problem," said criminal attorney George Restovich. "Instead of going after the repeat offenders, he's going after the people who don't need to be scrutinized."

Restovich said the affects of Slay's actions are far reaching.

"Ultimately there will be more people who have to take their case before a judge and jury and that's more time and money for everybody," Restovich said.

Mayor Slay and Mothers Against Drunk Driving would like to see the state legislature follow St. Louis' lead and crack down on first time offenders.

For more information on this dui crackdown, you can check out Mayor Slay's blog.

Visit Mayor Francis Slay's website here

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)