37 arrested for DUI over Fourth weekend

While this year’s Fourth of July in Coeur d’Alene was much quieter than last year’s, not all went smoothly for those who fell under the watchful gaze of law enforcement.

Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger said his office arrested 37 people for driving under the influence from Thursday evening to the end of Sunday, a slight decrease from last year’s numbers. Wolfinger said the unfortunate decisions the suspects made have no place in today’s world.

“In today’s day and age,” Wolfinger said, “with Uber and Lyft, as well as all the cabs, there is no reason to drink and drive.”

This year’s Fourth of July brought an unexpected surprise to the Coeur d’Alene Police Department.

“To be honest, we felt we had a much more family friendly day this year,” said Capt. Dave Hagar. “The trend seemed to point to a lot fewer problems than in years past.”

Hagar said he wasn’t tabulating the total alcohol-related calls for what’s traditionally been the department’s busiest weekends of the year, but he said what he observed and the reports from officers was of a calm and peaceful day, relatively speaking.

“There were fewer people there, relatively,” he said. “What I thought made a big difference was, because the fireworks were canceled, there weren’t a lot of people trying to scout out their spots along the beach. That made it a much more leisurely place in (City) Park.”

Chief Lee White had said in the weeks leading up to the holiday weekend that he would order virtually all hands on deck for the weekend, posting almost all of his 94 officers at strategic positions over the weekend, more than double the 38 officers on location during the same weekend last year. White said he emphasized Tubbs Hill as a high-traffic area, as many would purchase marijuana legally in Washington White said, “there were quite a few people drinking in the park, misbehaving and not following city and state codes.”

2019’s weekend celebrations were also marred by an incident near Independence Point. Tyler Rambo lost both legs after allegedly pointing a weapon toward pursuing police, who fired on the suspect. Rambo is being held on attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges. He has filed a $9 million lawsuit against the city while he awaits his Nov. 2 trial.