Drunk driving arrests in Weston double in three years, but few are town residents

By Gabby Simpson, Correspondent

Arrests for driving under the influence by Weston police nearly doubled in a recent three-year period, though only two of the 48 people charged were Weston residents, police records show.

Most of the arrests occurred during the overnight shift for police, between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., and on major roadways, Weston Police Chief Denis J. Linehan said.

Driving under the influence arrests often led to multiple other criminal charges including marked lane violations, failure to stop for police, speeding, possessing open alcohol in a vehicle and resisting arrest. The total number of all these alcohol-related motor vehicle charges rose from 20 in 2023 to 50 for both 2024 and 2025, department records indicate. Statewide, arrests for operating under the influence fell by almost 7% for the same three years, state data shows.

Residents of Waltham and Framingham represented 30% of the charges, while others were from Boston and Weston’s neighboring communities, according to department records.

In February 2023, a Davenport Road resident alerted police about a suspected intoxicated woman at the resident’s front door looking for help after driving over a rock. Police arrested the driver for operating under the influence. The same night, police arrested an Ashland woman after a caller reported seeing a woman sleeping in her car, partly off the road on Wellesley Street and Glen Road. A Bedford woman arrested in 2024 for her second drunk driving offense pleaded guilty to those charges in Waltham District Court in 2024, court records show.

Linehan said driving under the influence arrests increased, in part, as roads returned to their normal traffic after the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, police lacked aggressive enforcement on mostly empty Weston roads, he said.

“The officers kind of had to get out of the mindset of COVID-19, where they were just sitting on the side of the road and being a presence,” Linehan said, “and I wanted them to know that it was OK to go out and stop cars for motor vehicle infractions.”

Linehan added that Weston’s lack of traffic signals necessitates more aggressive enforcement of roadway laws.

“We kind of lack traffic signals here,” he said. “And as a result, people have to cross these lanes of travel where people are traveling at a fairly high rate of speed. So, motor vehicle enforcement is going to be a priority for us.”

Mary Kate DePamphilis, program director for the nonprofit Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Massachusetts, said she works with victims in the metrowest area, which has a “culture” of drinking and driving.

The average person arrested for OUI has driven intoxicated 80 times before their first arrest, MADD claims. DePamphilis said this means a higher number of arrests could indicate that law enforcement in the area is doing a “great job.”

“We strongly urge those who are drinking or using cannabis to plan ahead for a sober driver, ride share, or public transportation,” DePamphilis said. 

Overall arrests by Weston Police rose 43% between 2023 and the end of 2025, even as statewide arrests dropped by about 1.5%. Less than 10% of those arrested by Weston police for all criminal charges were Weston residents. Police charged 165 people with over 340 different criminal charges, including driving under the influence, domestic assault and battery, larceny, criminal harassment, violating an abuse order and drug possession. Over 91% of those charged were Massachusetts residents, though people from Florida, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut were also arrested.

“The good thing with Weston is we don’t have a lot of arrests, relatively speaking,” Linehan said. “But we also have the luxury here that we’re not dealing with a lot of violent crime, so our officers have the time to enforce motor vehicle [laws].”

Despite the recent surge of drunk driving arrests, Linehan expects these numbers to level off.

“Anytime that you have elevated motor vehicle enforcement, the likelihood of us coming across someone that is under the influence is going to go higher,” Linehan said. “They’re going to start to kind of plateau at this point.”

Linehan said the department has also been focused on preventing residential thefts targeting wealthy residents. In August 2023, Weston police alerted residents about a string of home break-ins in the early morning hours by organized thieves that targeted residents of South Asian descent.

“This is a very affluent community. We have a lot of people that live in this town, well-known people, that are very high in the hierarchy of what they do,” Linehan said. “As a result of that, these houses became targets for burglaries.”

Boston University Journalism Professor Maggie Mulvihill and graduate student Gabrielle Gagnon contributed to this story, which was produced in Mulvihill’s Data Journalism course in a partnership between the Weston Observer and the BU Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.