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Woman streamed live video of drunken driving
Posted On Oct 16 2015
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“The streaming Periscope video highlights the dangers of driving while intoxicated through the eyes of a drunk and irresponsible young adult”, the statement read. Using Periscope, you can broadcast whatever you’re doing live worldwide.
Police officers said they learned about the woman’s behavior from her peers on the social media who called 911 to report a probable drunk driver that was broadcasting herself behind the wheel live.
During the video, driver Whitney Beall can be heard saying that she is “drunk”, “f***ing drunk” and, ironically, that “drunk driving is not cool”. Unfortunately, the feed was so patchy and irregular the caller was unable to tell the police what kind of vehicle the woman was driving. Beall also reportedly wonders aloud whether she will get home without being ticketed. After 30 years of law enforcement I hadn’t seen anything like this before’. She was booked into the Polk County Jail.
Unfortunately for responding officers, it wasn’t immediately clear exactly where in Lakeland she was located – Beall herself repeatedly says she’s lost in the video. She might be driving with a flat tyre.
LPD doesn’t provide officers with access to Periscope as an authorized software tool and they didn’t have the ability to monitor her actions.
“She was out of it. And it’s obvious from watching that livestreaming video how bad she was”, Lakeland police Sgt. Gary Gross told CNN affiliate Bay News 9. She also failed to move off when the lights turned green and several drivers honked their horns. Beall’s vehicle stopped in the 1000 block of Carpenters Way. It took officers about 20 minutes after the calls to track down Beall, pull her over and administer sobriety tests that resulted in the DUI charge.
Police said officers could smell “the odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from Beall”.
The Lakeland Police Department doesn’t allow officers to download Periscope on their work phones, but one officer downloaded it on his personal phone in an effort to locate Beall.
