A problem is surfacing in Tennessee when it comes to official reports about DUIS. Any drunk driving accidents in the state are meant to be reported, but that is turning out to not be the case, much to the detriment of everyone.

It was recently reported that some of the most rural and poor counties in the state of Tennessee are not properly filing their DUI reports. In fact, out of the 95 counties in the state, 19 of them have not filed their reports properly. This is a relatively large number, prompting some officials to state that they might need to instate a system of incentives or consequences for the lack of reporting. Some have speculated that the lack of funds or staffing is what’s causing this absence of reports.

However, the lack of reports has a bad effect on everyone else. If an officer does not report a DUI crime to either the FBI’s National Crime Information Center or to the central crime reporting system of the state, that DUI will remain unrecorded. This will mean that if someone gets arrested for a DUI in another county, their previous record will not show up. This flaw in the system was discovered after one man was charged with multiple first-time DUIs despite the fact that he was on his fifth DUI by the time he was discovered

This additional and unnecessary danger can be a big problem to other drivers on the road, as well as making the job of police officers more difficult. For this reason, the missing counties are now under heavier scrutiny, along with any drivers from them who have been marked with a DUI charge.

Source: KFVS12, “18 TN counties fail to report DUI data to crime database,” Andy Wise, Sep 22, 2015