Data journalism · DUI and DWI arrests
Maps and charts of DUI and DWI arrests by state, county, hour and weekday, with the method shown beside every number. County records are still being collected, so most figures are labeled illustrative samples; the ones from published records name their source.
United States · 50 states
How DUI is charged and penalized varies by state. Every state has a profile; 10 also have county pages, and 3 of those have a county hotspot map. Shading shows what the site has for each state, not arrest figures. County figures are sample data for now.
What the site publishes today. Figures marked Sample data are illustrative; charts that name a source use published records.
01Charts and maps
City of Chicago open data portal, Chicago Police Department Arrests table (aggregated by the project; no row-level data was kept) · Oct 20, 2026
Arrests per clock hour, Chicago
Arrests per 100,000 residentsArizona Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) · Oct 12, 2026
Areas about 3 km acrossSample data
Areas about 3 km acrossSample data
Areas about 3 km acrossSample data
02Questions
See it in the featured story
Open a county map
See the bail comparison
03Featured story
Map
The night
In this sample, 7,680 of 8,278 arrests counted fall between 6 PM and 6 AM. That window is half of the clock.
The map shows only that window. Colors follow the legend, from the fewest arrests in an area to the most.
Selection. Evening and late night, 6 PM to 6 AM, every day of the week.
Counted. 7,680 of 8,278 arrests in published areas (92.8%).
Areas shown. 339 of 340 published areas have 5 or more arrests in this window.
Reading it. Counts add up published areas only. Counts under 5 are withheld, so totals are a floor, not the full count.
The map
In this sample, the busiest 76 areas hold 50.3% of all arrests counted. That is 22% of the 340 areas on the map. The rest are drawn faint.
This is a count, not a rate, so areas with more drivers or more patrols can show more arrests.
Areas published. 340 hexagons, each about 3 km across.
Busiest areas. 76 areas, ranked by all-hours arrests until half of the total is reached.
Their share. 4,164 of 8,278 arrests (50.3%).
Caveat. Arrest locations follow where people drive and where police patrol as well as where impaired driving happens.
The hours
In this sample, 5,036 arrests fall between midnight and 6 AM, a quarter of the day's hours.
From 6 AM to noon there are 164. Most areas fall under 5 arrests in the morning, so some of their arrests are left out of the counts and the real gap may be smaller than these counts suggest.
Selection. Late night, midnight to 6 AM, every day of the week.
Counted. 5,036 of 8,278 arrests (60.8%).
For comparison. Morning, 6 AM to noon: 164. Afternoon, noon to 6 PM: 434. Evening, 6 PM to midnight: 2,644.
Areas shown. 321 of 340 published areas have 5 or more arrests in this window.
The weekend
In this sample, the three days from Friday to Sunday hold 6,217 of 8,278 arrests counted.
Per day, that is about 2,072 on Friday to Sunday against 515 on Monday to Thursday. Most areas fall under 5 arrests on Monday to Thursday, so some of their arrests are left out of the counts and the real gap may be smaller than these counts suggest.
Selection. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, all hours.
Counted. 6,217 of 8,278 arrests (75.1%).
Per day. About 2,072 a day on Friday to Sunday, against 515 a day on Monday to Thursday.
Day groups. The data groups days as Monday to Thursday and Friday to Sunday, so a single day cannot be separated out.
The rule
A count of 1 to 4 could point to a person or a street, so it is never published. When the hours you pick leave an area under 5, it drops off the map.
The slice with the most withheld areas is 6 AM–noon, Mon–Thu: 335 of 340 areas fall under 5 there and show as faint outlines. They had fewer than 5 arrests or none; the data does not say which.
Rule. A count is published for an area and a time slot only when it is 5 or more.
In this slice. 335 of 340 areas withheld (6 AM–noon, Mon–Thu).
Effect on totals. Withheld counts are left out, so every total on this page is a floor, not the full count.
Never published. Addresses, time stamps and individual records. Areas are hexagons about 3 km across.
Method
Everything on this page is built from an illustrative sample that we wrote to show how the map and the story work. It is not a set of arrest records, and no area on it says anything about a real place.
The text is computed from the data, so when a real file replaces the sample, every sentence and figure here is rewritten from it.
Status. Sample data. Written by us; it carries no source and should not be cited as a finding.
Grid. Hexagons about 3 km across; four times of day; Monday to Thursday and Friday to Sunday.
Rule. Counts under 5 are withheld, so totals are a floor, not the full count.
Coverage. Synthetic areas from a seeded model of a city core and a few satellites. Not arrest locations.
Caveat. No place is named, and no area is claimed to be a real hotspot.
Caveat. Real data will publish only areas with at least 5 arrests in a period, so a count cannot point to a person or a street.
| Time of day | Weekdays (Mon–Thu) | Weekends (Fri–Sun) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 AM–noon | 28 | 136 | 164 |
| Noon–6 PM | 69 | 365 | 434 |
| 6 PM–midnight | 551 | 2,093 | 2,644 |
| Midnight–6 AM | 1,413 | 3,623 | 5,036 |
| All hours | 2,061 | 6,217 | 8,278 |
| Areas published | 340 |
Sources and methods
Questions and answers
Every chart says what its numbers are and shows how they were made.