When we were in high school, all the driver’s education movies (no videos in those days) were grisly affairs, designed to terrify young drivers into following the rules of the road.
But Des Plaines police are taking a different approach. The idea is not to scare people this time around. No scenes of streets washed in blood and gore after a drunken driver slams into some mini-van full of children. Not this time.
No, the idea behind this community access cable production is purely informational. This is what it’s going to be like if you drink, drive and get caught.
The dramatization starts in a bar, progresses into the car and shows an actual Des Plaines police officer stopping the impaired driver (played by another Des Plaines officer) and conducting a sobriety field test and making an arrest.
When we were in high school, somebody always fainted during the bloody scenes in those driver’s ed movies. But if your main reaction after watching a drunken driver getting processed by police is to merely think “bummer,” well, that’s OK too.
The solution to avoid getting cast in the real-life role of the simulated driver on the cable show is easy enough to figure out.
According to Des Plaines Police Chief Bob Sturlini, the drunken-driving video is just part of a series of public information videos for cable TV that the police department wants to do as part of its dedication to community-based policing.
This particular production was the brainchild of Officer Ron Smith, who performs his real-life job of stopping the drunken driver in the video. He also explains some of what a police officer looks for in spotting a drunken driver and gives a preview of the legal hassles that lie ahead.
“We just wanted to show a typical drunken driver getting arrested-no dramatic chases, no bloody accidents-just a typical arrest and how easy it is to get to the point where you do this day after day until you get caught and here is what it’s like,” Smith said.
“We wanted to actually use officers who work this detail and have them talk to the public,” Sturlini said. “People are hearing this from a real Des Plaines police officer whom they could very well run into on the street, and he talks straight from his own experience.”
The video came together because Jim Brink, a computer programmer who got video training as a “community producer” at TCI and joined the Des Plaines Cable Commission as a hobby, took it under his wing.
Brink, who is still editing the half-hour work and says it’s almost completed, is satisfied with the final product.
Brink said he put about 20 hours of work into the production, which had a budget of about $30.
“The city supplied the tape, and I think the police department picked up the incidental expenses, which came down to things like tipping the waitress in the bar,” he laughed. “Everything else was done by volunteers, and even the police officers did much of the filming on their own time.”
The production will run during the month of September on both the TCI community access channel and the government access channel in Des Plaines, and will also show in parts of Mt. Prospect and Park Ridge.
Gauntlet is thrown: Hoffman Estates Mayor Michael O’Malley, who is the proud owner of the Mayor’s Cup, a traveling trophy for the winning mayoral foursome at the Woodfield Area Charity Organization’s annual Hackers’ Open benefit, said there is no doubt in his mind his group will grab the prize again this year.
“And I’m not going to swallow any stories from Al Larson about Fuzzy Zoeller being his new finance chairman, either,” he said.
This year’s tournament, to benefit WACO’s Christmas shopping spree for needy children in the northwest suburbs, will be Sept. 9 at Rolling Knolls Country Club in Elgin. Call 708-490-5946 for more information.
Art auction: The second annual Art for Hope auction will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Oct. 1 in the Lattof Chevrolet showroom, 800 E. Northwest Highway, Arlington Heights.
Original watercolors, oils, pottery and jewelry by local artists will be auctioned off to benefit Hope Center, a resource and referral center for the homeless.
There will be a dessert table, and Quintessence, a woodwind quintet, will play. Tickets are $15 each. For reservations, call Greg Hanson at 708-255-1965.
