Not advocating drunk driving but Instead of charging the dude they should have just given the guy a ride home & thanking him for putting public safety first.
My first thought was no way is that kind of thing just isn't going to happen these days because a 911 call is public record. But in PA, it isn't, according to a quick check I made, unlike FL (with the caller's name and address deleted).
Groups like MADD get information that a police officer gave a guy a break like that, and they'll be all over him.
While 911 calls may not be public records, I still think that drunk driving is almost a certainty if a perp is drunk and driving and is caught. Zero tolerance these days for that, mostly because of politics.
The days where a cop would give a guy a ride home after having imbibed too much are long gone. They'd rather arrest the guy, impound his car, take his driver's license, force him to spend a couple nights in jail, and then, after his court case is heard, fine him a couple of grand, plus court costs.
Somebody's got to pay for those lessons in how to conduct public intoxication assessments!
I do agree that it's unconscionable these days for somebody to be arrested for drunk driving, given all the cultural shifts over the past 30 years or so, but it happens every day.