Yolo DUIs: Davis Police Receive Grant to Increase Enforcement

Sergeant Rod Rifredi of the Davis Police Department shared the following release Wednsday afternoon, about a grant that will help enforce DUIs in Yolo County: 

Drunk and drugged driving remains the number one killer on our state roadways, with nearly 800 deaths and over 24,000 injuries. The “Avoid the 8” DUI Task Force will be attacking this problem head on through DUI enforcement efforts in Yolo County as a result of a recent $80,000 grant awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety to the Davis Police Department. Davis Police Department will administer the grant for the entire county.

Chief Landy Black of the Davis police department says, “The “Avoid the 8” 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 any of the 8 participating law enforcement agencies in the county.”

The grant activities will specifically target those who get behind the wheel after drinking too much or using drugs that impair driving. Officers will be staffing DUI/Driver License Checkpoints, multi-agency DUI Task Force deployments, and local DUI saturation patrols for each partnering. Additionally, funding will target the ‘worst of the worst’ 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.

“The Avoid DUI Task Forces have been an essential part of the phenomenal reduction in DUI deaths that we witnessed from 2006 to 2010 in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “But since the tragedy of DUI accounts for nearly one third of traffic fatalities, Yolo County needs the high visibility enforcement and public awareness that this grant will provide.”

A large part of grant funding will go to DUI/Drivers 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 drop by an average of 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.

1Motorists 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.

Agencies participating in the ‘Avoid the 8’ task force include:

City of Davis PD City of Woodland PD City of West Sacramento PD Yolo County SO CHP, Woodland Office City of Winters PD UCDPD Yolo County Probation Department

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