Letter to the Editor: Feedback About Failure of Chief Circuit Office's Process in DUI Suspensions

I attended the Special Judiciary meeting March 14 reference the failure of the Chief Circuit Clerk’s Office process DUI driver license suspensions in a timely fashion thus jeopardizing public safety.

Given the threat to life this occasions I asked issue oriented questions to determine: (1) responsibility, and, (2) ensuring a solution to the problem.

ISSUE ONE: Human Error and Taking Responsibility: Responding to my questions the Chief Clerk indicated one (1) person was responsible for processing suspensions.

When I asked if the staff member received any help or supervision with this task the Chief Clerk responded ‘no’. It seemed strange one person had no supervisor. Since some citizens wondered if US Attorney Wigginton had been allowed to keep his license for political reasons, I asked if the Chief Clerk had monitored Wigginton’s suspension to ensure no mistakes were made. The Chief Clerk said; ‘no….’.

ISSUE TWO: Corrective Measures: Since lives are at stake, I’ve asked for the Chief of the Circuit Court to provide the Judiciary Committee with corrective measures to ensure this type of mistake never occurs again. I’m not sure I see this as ‘human error’. I view it as a ‘system failure’ since the Chief Clerk responses indicated there may be a lack of review procedures to ensure timely processing of suspensions.

Respectfully submitted,

Phil Chapman

County Board District Three

Member Judiciary Committee

Opinions expressed in this section are solely those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of RiverBender.com or its affiliates. We provide a platform for community voices, but the responsibility for opinions rests with their authors.

More like this: