FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS: Lt. Jeff Hallock (714) 647 7042/Gail Krause (714) 647-1840
Orange County Sheriff’s Department Receives Grant for County-Wide DUI Enforcement Campaign
SANTA ANA, CA – (October 18, 2013) – Drunk and drugged driving remains the number one killer on our roadways with 774 deaths and over 24,000 injuries. The “Avoid the 13” DUI Task Force will be combating this deadly problem through DUI enforcement efforts in Orange County. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department will be administering a recent $114,232 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to cover DUI enforcement operations within the department’s 13 contract cities.
“Drivers who have a blood alcohol concentration between .08% and .099% are 11 times more likely to die in a single vehicle traffic collision,” said Sergeant Yvonne Shull of the Sheriff’s Department Traffic Bureau.
“Checkpoints, saturation patrols, and an increase in DUI enforcement on our roadways with help ensure that offenders who endanger themselves and others by driving while intoxicated are caught and arrested before a collision occurs.”
The “Avoid the 13” DUI Task Force is named to send the message that if you don’t drink or use drugs and drive, you will avoid getting arrested by members of the Sheriff’s Department DUI Task Force.
The grant activities will specifically target those who get behind the wheel after drinking too much or using drugs that impair driving. Officers from law enforcement agencies across the county will jointly staff DUI/driver license checkpoints, multi-agency DUI Task Force deployments, and local DUI saturation patrols. Additionally, funding will target the repeat DUI offenders with warrant/probation sweeps and court sting enforcement operations focusing on DUI offenders who leave court hearings and drive away on suspended licenses after being ordered not to drive by a judge.
A large part of grant funding will go to DUI/driver license checkpoints – highly visible, highly publicized events not only meant to make arrests, but to deter impaired driving in the first place. Crashes involving alcohol have been shown to drop by up to 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), checkpoints have provided the most effective documented results of any of the DUI enforcement strategies, while yielding considerable cost savings of $6 for every $1 spent and are supported by nearly 90 percent of California drivers.
Motorists can expect to see special DUI campaigns during the winter and summer holiday periods as well as on Halloween, Super Bowl Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and during local special events with identified DUI problems. Funding for the grant comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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Orange County Sheriff’s Department Receives Grant for Special Traffic Enforcement and Crash Prevention
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department was recently awarded three grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety totaling $310,132 for special traffic enforcement and crash prevention programs. The grants include:
- $163,000 for a year-long program aimed at preventing deaths and injuries on roadways through specialized training for deputies such as standardized field sobriety testing, advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement and drug recognition evaluator. Grant funds will also be used for special enforcement programs including DUI saturation patrols, warrant service operations and court sting operations.
- $114,232 for DUI enforcement operations in the Sheriff’s Department’s thirteen (13) contract cities, including DUI/driver license checkpoints and local DUI saturation patrols.
- $32,900 for additional DUI/driver license checkpoints in the county.
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