GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News investigates controversy surrounding the Gwinnett County Police Department and DUI arrests.
We uncovered that one officer had 65 DUI cases thrown out or reduced since April 2025, after his reports and sworn affidavits did not always match what happened on the body camera video.
Channel 2’s Michael Seiden uncovered what a DUI expert witness calls a quota – encouraging task force members to make 150 DUI arrests a year.
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Channel 2 filed an open records request and obtained a letter written by a supervisor in Gwinnett County Police’s DUI unit. It states the goal for members of the unit is at least 150 DUI arrests a year – enough to earn the highest award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
We talked to a DUI expert witness who believes that kind of system can incentivize bad police work.
“I gotta ask you because I can smell it. How much have you had to drink tonight?” asked officer Matthew Lau on body camera video.
“I had a few,” replied Anthony Jamison.
That exchange happened at the beginning of Jamison’s DUI arrest in 2021.
But a letter written by a Gwinnett County DUI task force supervisor is raising new questions about the numbers behind these arrests.
In a letter of commendation, Cpl. Matthew Lau’s supervisor praised him as a “statistics leader” citing 753 traffic stops, 822 traffic citations and 175 DUI arrests in 2024.
But it’s the next paragraph that caught our attention.
“The goal each year for the members of the DUI unit is obtain at least 150 DUI arrests” to earn the highest award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
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Channel 2 Action News investigates went to MADD’s 2025 awards ceremony where Lau was honored for his 175 DUI arrests.
The letter says after Lau reached that mark; he helped other members of the unit achieve their “respective goals.”
“Again, you see the term quota, a lot of agencies use different names for it, performance objectives, those type of things. I think they should not be there. In my personal opinion, it incentivizes bad police work,” said Matthew Mahlhiot, a DUI expert witness who spent decades in law enforcement.
We obtained personnel records that repeatedly mention the number of DUI arrests and earning MADD awards, along with body camera video, police reports and court records from some of Lau’s arrests and asked Mahlhiot to review them.
He said there is nothing wrong with rewarding officers for getting impaired drivers off the road.
His concern is measuring success by the number of arrests and not the quality of those arrests.
“Your target is numbers. How many arrests can I make? How many people can I get off the street? And that’s not the purpose of it. It’s not to see who can win the most arrests. That, to me, is an improper incentive.
Mahlhiot said there are better ways to track effectiveness including conviction rates and serious crashes.
“If you’re having injury accidents and highway fatalities go down, you know your DUI task force is doing a good job,” said Mahlhiot.
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Anthony Jamison believes Cpl. Lau had already decided he was going to jail.
“You can really honestly see that I was targeted from that point. He seemed like he had already had his mind made up,” said Jamison.
His DUI charge was dropped in court over differences between what Lau wrote in his reports and search warrant affidavit and what his body camera actually showed.
We found 65 of Lau’s DUI arrests were dismissed or reduced since April 2025.
“The job is not to make as many arrests as you can. The job is to make the streets safe,” said Mahlhiot.
Gwinnett County Police sent us this statement about its DUI task force:
“The Gwinnett County Police Department takes pride in the work our officers do to keep impaired drivers off the road. While the Department establishes goals related to traffic safety and enforcement, those goals are focused on reducing dangerous driving behaviors, preventing crashes, and keeping our roadways safe for all drivers. Our DUI officers receive additional specialized training in detecting impaired drivers, and DUI enforcement is their primary responsibility which directly supports our mission of protecting lives and property and keeping the Gwinnett County community safe.”
The department also sent us this statement about Lau’s DUI arrests:
“First and foremost, there has never been a formal allegation of wrongdoing against Cpl. Lau. With regard to the transcript, GCPD respects the Gwinnett County Solicitor General’s Office, and they have full discretion to determine the prosecution viability in their cases. Regarding the transcript, it is important to note that a full review was done by GCPD after learning about that case and what was said about Cpl. Lau during that plea hearing. Of note, Cpl. Lau, nor any member of his supervision, was contacted prior to the comments made in the hearing about him, there was no discussion regarding his case findings, nor was the case or the BWC reviewed with any member of our department prior to the hearing and case disposition.
GCPD was requested by the Solicitor’s Office to informally review several of Cpl. Lau’s cases after that case disposition and did so. Trained professionals in Field Sobriety Evaluations, DUI detection, and years of law enforcement experience reviewed BWC without review of Cpl. Lau’s reports or notes first and reached nearly all the same conclusions in all cases requested for review.
With regard to the Brady letter, you will need to discuss with the Solicitor General her specific reasons for compiling that letter, but it is my understanding that she did so in an abundance of caution to comply with what she believes were her ethical obligations under Brady, and it allows defense attorneys the opportunity to do their own research to determine if there is anything that may be impeachable contained within those six cases listed. Nothing more and nothing less. At no time did the Solicitor General indicate to GCPD that she believed Cpl. Lau did anything intentional or malicious. Of the cases listed on the Brady letter, one case deals with a search warrant for blood where there was a copy and paste error that occurred and Cpl. Lau acknowledges and accepts his mistake. I believe that is the reference you make to a search warrant for blood where the warrant does not match the BWC and incident report. Again, the cases listed on the Brady letter were determined by the sole discretion of the Solicitor General’s Office and without input or discussion with Cpl. Lau or members of GCPD. We were notified of that letter and its intent. We appreciated the Solicitor General’s candor in the matter and understand her decision.
Additionally, per best practices and procedure and to not distract suspects during roadside evaluations, officers are not allowed to make notes and must go off memory as to noted clues in each field sobriety test. Search warrants for blood or other bodily substance are done by memory immediately after arrest. It is later in the process that officers may review BWC while compiling their incident reports which can result in a change as to the number of clues observed, sometimes for and other times against the suspect.
Cpl. Lau remains a police officer with GCPD in good standing. He is currently assigned to our uniform division where he continues to make DUI arrests and all other cases in accordance with our mission statement and core values.
As far as the GCPD DUI Unit goes, it was recently recognized by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) who partnered with the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) to recognize agencies and individuals who work to keep our communities safe from impaired drivers. For the third year in a row, GCPD was awarded The Agency DUI Hero Award for making the most DUI arrests in the State of Georgia. The work of that unit continues to be the leader on best practices across the state and for which our department and Gwinnett County should be proud of their dedication and hard work.”
Anthony Jamison said he would like to see the department make changes.
“Retrain, change policies, all of the above, you know, not get awards, not have a quota,” said Jamison.
Gwinnett County Police say they did an informal review of Cpl. Lau’s DUI arrests and reached nearly all the same conclusions as Lau.
That review found serious mistakes on three search warrant affidavits.
Cpl. Lau is no longer part of the DUI task force but he is still making DUI arrests.
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