Grant Money to Bolster DUI Prevention and Enforcement Efforts in California

Several counties across California have received sizeable grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety (COTS) in order to heighten DUI enforcement efforts and expand education programs for the public. Three counties in particular, Los Angeles County, Orange County, and Humboldt County, are receiving heightened press attention for their proposed changes to existing DUI prevention programs.

In Los Angeles County, the Glendora Police Department has been awarded more than $1.5 million in order to coordinate drunk driving enforcement throughout the Southern California region this holiday season. For the fourth year in a row, the Glendora Police Department has been designated as the "host" department for the Los Angeles county's "Avoid the 100" program. Glendora received the second largest of five grants awarded this year in connection with the "Avoid the 100" DUI enforcement program.

Most of the funding for the "Avoid the 100" DUI prevention program is targeted towards educating the public on the dangers of driving drunk, as opposed to utilizing the funds in order to arrest more individuals found to be driving under the influence. However, some of the money will be earmarked for increased numbers of police checkpoints, warrant sweeps, and blood alcohol testing equipment. According to local police, this grant could not come at a better time of year because the holiday season tends to accumulate the highest number of drunk driving fatalities.

Glendora police program coordinator, Wendy Soos, and California Office of Traffic Safety spokesman, Chris Cochran, both stated that they believe that the "Avoid the 100" program has been highly effective at reducing driving under the influence related accidents and fatalities since its establishment in 1973. Cochran even credited the "Avoid" for the 6.7% decrease in DUI related fatalities in California in 2007. Soos voiced her approval of the increased funding of the "Avoid" program, stating that, "If you can educate (the public) and stop somebody from killing someone, then you've done your job."

Further south, the Costa Mesa police department in Orange County received a $300,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety in order to increase the number of DUI checkpoints, saturation patrols, and sting operations executed next year. More specifically, the funds will be targeted towards conducting warrant searches and stakeouts for repeat DUI offenders and for stakeouts outside of local courthouses in order to determine whether individuals convicted of driving under the influence and who have had their licenses suspended, are following the law.

In Northern California, the Eureka Police Department in Humboldt County was provided with a $49,000 grant to assist in reducing the number of individuals injured in alcohol and drug related collisions. Eureka Police Department traffic officer Gary Witmer voiced his approval of the grant, stating that the funding was long overdue, "Our DUI collisions are high and our DUI arrests are low. It's amazing how bad our rankings are." According to statistics for 2007 provided by the California Office of Transportation, 177 of 1,072 traffic collisions in Humboldt County were alcohol related.

One of the main problems Witmer cited in Eureka's DUI prevention campaign was a shortness of funds to pay for additional personnel. While the grant will not lead to the hiring of additional officers, the money will instead be used to pay overtime to officers involved in DUI enforcement programs and patrols.

One of the methods that the Eureka Police Department plans to implement in order to cut down on drunk driving violations is to implement sting operations in court. As part of this proposal, plainclothes officers will sit in on traffic court proceedings in order to determine who has DUI related offenses. The officers will then trail the suspects to the court parking lot to investigate whether the individual is violating their license suspension. Witmer has even suggested that officers will, in the future, be instructed to stake out the homes of habitual DUI offenders in order to make sure that the individuals do not get behind the wheel of a car.

In support of these proposed DUI enforcement measures, Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen stated that, "The Eureka Police Department has a zero tolerance policy relative to this crime and has established the enforcement of DUI laws as one of our highest priorities."

Ultimately, as these three counties illustrate, these grants translate into dramatically heightened DUI enforcement procedures, which will most certainly be observed across California in the coming months, especially during the holiday season.

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