Grant designed to reduce DUIs in El Dorado County
Building on the successes achieved in recent years, the Avoid the 6 DUI task force bring more traffic enforcement to El Dorado County. Special DUI enforcement campaigns are as a result of a $321,513.00 grant awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety to the South Lake Tahoe Police Department.
“Our first grant funded event will start Memorial Day Weekend with a multi-agency DUI check point and DUI saturation patrols,” Sgt. Shannon Laney said. “This is a big deal for our community and brings in much needed funding to combat impaired driving, our No. 1 cause of injury collisions in South Lake Tahoe.”
The grant activities will specifically target those who drink too much and get behind the wheel. Additionally, funding will target repeat DUI offenders with warrant/probation sweeps searching for those in violation of court orders and those who have not appeared in court on past DUI arrests. Finally, the Avoid the 6 DUI Campaign will conduct court sting enforcement operations focusing on those who leave the courtroom and drive away on suspended licenses after being ordered not to drive by the judge.
South Lake Tahoe Police Department will administer the grant for the entire county. 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 6’ task force include: South Lake Tahoe Police Department, Placerville Police Department, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department, El Dorado County Probation, California Highway Patrol and California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
“The Avoid task forces have played an integral role in the recent reductions in alcohol-related and other deaths on our roadways, lowering alcohol impaired deaths by more than 20 percent in the last three years in California,” Christopher Murphy, director of the Office of Traffic Safety, said in a press release. “This grant will help make South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County a safer place to visit, live and work.”
“The Avoid task forces have played an integral role in the recent reductions in alcohol-related and other deaths on our roadways, lowering alcohol impaired deaths by more than 20 percent in the last three years in California.
I don’t agree, I personal think the bad economy ,people not driving, or having money to spend going out to the casinos, bar,grills, nice eating places has a lot to do with this figure.
I ALSO THINKS THIS HURTS BUSINESS.
If they took half this money alloted ,paid for taxi fairs,free trans service,more people would go out take advantage of a free ride home,I think business could reap more dollars ,in return city ,state,federal could have more tax returns on the money.
This is a eye opening cause that the money could go for a better ideas of how make it practical for all to benefit.
I still think here in South Shore and cities around the lake need a practical trans system that works for all.
Does the $321,513.00 grant really get a return on the money in restitution ,that shows a bigger take than give? I sure like to see a follow up(story,researched) on the past grants and the profit or lost to the system.
I’ve seen it many times here at the casinos ,favorite bars,grills, when someone leaves to go home calls back to the bar tender or cocktail waitress by cell phone, tells the customers where the check points are.The word gets out faster than they can move set up theses money guzzling check points.
People are driving buzzed regardless of the check point anyway, so why not share some this grant cash with the public trans system on the biggest holidays of the year, see if we could fill up some business,buses,keep our streets safe.
In these days of fewer dollars, it couldn’t hurt to see if it could Benefit all us ,not just the legal system that burns money just like school system.
Thank you for your well thought out comments and concerns. I usually don’t respond to comments because it usually turns into an avenue for people to express just how much they dislike the police and the service we provide. But being the spokes person for SLTPD and specifically traffic related grants, I felt compelled to address your concerns:
“I don’t agree, I personal think the bad economy ,people not driving, or having money to spend going out to the casinos, bar,grills, nice eating places has a lot to do with this figure.
I ALSO THINKS THIS HURTS BUSINESS. ”
Actually, the worse the economy gets, so does alcohol and drug abuse. For some reason, no matter how broke folks are, they still find money to buy these vices.
As far as using the money to pay for public transportation, that may reduce a few, but most people I’ve talked to don’t want to leave their cars in the parking lot at the clubs. Free transportation is often offered, but the habitual DUI offender doesn’t care about paying for transportation. Whiskey Dicks and Sam’s Place have both offered (In the past, I don’t know about right now) free transportation. However, this still doesn’t reduce the number of impaired drivers on the road.
“I still think here in South Shore and cities around the lake need a practical trans system that works for all.”
Check it out: http://www.bluego.org/ My teenager uses the on-call bus from Meyers and it works great for him and its dirt cheap.
“Does the $321,513.00 grant really get a return on the money in restitution ,that shows a bigger take than give? I sure like to see a follow up(story,researched) on the past grants and the profit or lost to the system.”
Actually, these grants are not about making money, but reducing traffic collisions and injuries. No, we could never “Make” that amount of money back in fines to the arrestees. Those funds are delegated out to four of the six participating agencies to cover overtime expenses, equipment and education materials. The real question is, ‘How much is one life saved worth?” we will never know if that one person arrested, or those eight arrested saved a life that night, but I can tell you that if we were not out there making those arrests, many more lives would be lost.
Without these grant funds, we could not afford to put dedicated DUI officers on the street. On any given shift, we typically field three to four officers at one time. That includes weekends and holidays, with the only exceptions being the 4th and New Years.
You mentioned that you personally have seen that when someone leaves the bar and finds a check point, they call back to the bar to warn people of them. Well, that’s the point. We want the drinking public to know we are out there which is why we announce our activities in the Tribune, on this site and on the Police Departments own web page (www.sltpd.com). We want people to know we are out there looking for impaired drivers and we are doing something about it.
And the final part about sharing some of that “grant cash”. Well, we have very little control over how the money is spent. There are specific contractual obligations we need to meet. Sorry. But when I can meet our equipment needs from local vendors, I do direct our purchases locally.
I hope that answers some of your questions.
Sgt Laney
Thank you for you time Sgt Laney,If more people in our local government were as concerned about things and tried to answer some common sense question the community could be more supportive.
Not that I fully agree ,it’s good to know someone out there reads the comments of the community.
I’ve always thought the SLPD was a fair bunch of people in a area of many transit problems that come ,go, from our community.
To be very Honest,I moved to Lake Tahoe Many years a go to escape the police Brutality of the LA area before the Rodney King tapes hit the news reel.(it was very bad, no kidding)!
I’ve seen many arrest in our area from our men in blue, but not once have I every seen them treat the wrong doer with disrespect…….
I take my Hat off to all of you,I’m Glad you are there in a time of Need, Crisis .