DUI Stops: What Are They Really About?

When news was released from the about this Saturday’s many readers on Facebook discussed the necessity of the announcement.

Barbara Gemini Haglund commented of the announcement of the Dec. 17 checkpoint on Route 1 near business Park Drive starting at 6 p.m., “I think it’s so stupid that they tell the area.”

Diane Theroux said, “I agree, everyone will just go a different direction! So smart on their part...”

Weighing-in on the other side of the coin, Diane Lomasney Anderson, wrote, “Perhaps they know that people will stay off the roads or be more cautious about drinking too much... anything to keep the drunks off the roads… or at least use designated drivers if partying.”

At , Branford Patch asked Chief Kevin Halloran how and why the department announces DUI stops.

“We don’t want people to drive drunk so if they know we are out there, hopefully they won’t,” said Halloran. He also noted that the announcement of the stop is mandated by law.

Captain Geoffrey Morgan oversees the annual federal grant for DUI enforcement which makes the upcoming sobriety checkpoint possible. Informing the public, he said, is part of fourth amendment rights protecting individuals from unlawful search and seizure.

For at least the last five years Morgan has helped secure this grant to the tune of about $60,000 annually for comprehensive DUI enforcement. Administered by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, the grant comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The grant is also matched 25 percent by the town though Morgan explains that the match is almost always recovered through the town’s cost of officers’ benefits. The total money spent in 2011-2012 for DUI enforcement will be just under $80,000 reported Morgan.

So exactly how is this $80,000 used to reduce drunk driving?

Morgan explained that last year, though no sobriety checks were administered under this grant, 372 officer hours were funded (often hours are overtime pay) and more than 400 motor vehicle stops were conducted. Branford officers were able to arrest seven individuals for DUI and 41 citations were issued for not wearing seatbelts. More than 200 other motor vehicle citations were issued for offenses such as speeding, cell phone use and distracted driving.

“The grant is a necessary function for productive law enforcement,” commented Morgan. “It not only increases the safety of our motorists during the holiday season – there are some benefits that happen,” he added. Those benefits, Morgan continued, are a statistically proven reduction in underage drinking as a result of active DUI enforcement.

As part of the grant, the upcoming sobriety checkpoint will also signify the start of the department’s increased DUI enforcement during the holiday season. From this weekend through after the New Year, officers will be out in extra force tasked with ensuring driver safety. The grant also mandates that other holidays such as Memorial Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving be a focus of DUI enforcement.

Through September 2012, Morgan said there may be one more sobriety checkpoint conducted through the grant. Running checkpoints, he explained, are difficult for the department because an additional eight officers are required to make one happen. In addition to those officers at the checkpoint, other officers will be waiting on side roads for those self-detoured drivers to make any type of driving mistake.

Nationwide, Morgan shared that DUI arrests are down but Connecticut has a higher average of alcohol-related deaths. In 2009, 51 percent of all traffic fatalities were alcohol-related in state. Nationally the average was 38 percent.