The funds contribute to checkpoints as well as Saturation Patrol Activity, for which officers receive overtime pay to monitor potential trouble spots.
A person is driving impaired if the amount of alcohol or other substances in their system passes a certain threshold, most notably 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content.
Last year, the task forces averaged one OVI arrest for every 357 vehicles to pass through a checkpoint. They also averaged one arrest for every 25 hours of saturation patrol.
Officials say the money is well spent in the effort to decrease alcohol-related crashes and fatalities. According to OCJS data, statewide alcohol-related fatal crashes dropped from 435 in 2007 to 393 in 2010, although they remained nearly identical in the 10 counties with task forces.
“I don’t want (the patrols) to force anything,” said Anita Biles, coordinator of the Clark County OVI Task Force. “Our goal is not to be Big Brother who is driving people nuts. But, it seems to be working. That’s visibility. That’s the bottom line.”
The OVI Task Force Program is one of four that conduct OVI checkpoints as part of their federal grants controlled by OCJS. In all, those four programs received more than $7.1 million last year.
State officials said the goal of checkpoints, in which officers briefly stop vehicles to observe drivers for signs of impairment, is more awareness than arrests, while the saturation patrols place more officers on the streets.
“The goal of high-visibility enforcement, saturation patrols, is for law enforcement to go out there and shake the bushes and arrest as many drunks as possible,” said Felice Moretti, director of federal programs for OCJS.
“The goal of a checkpoint is not to arrest as many drunks as you can. The perfect checkpoint would be zero drunks arrested through a checkpoint. It truly is a deterrent to impaired driving and just one of the many tools in the tool belt that law enforcement can use at the county-wide level.”
Goal is fewer fatalities
In 2009, Clark County inched its way up the alcohol-related fatality list and qualified for county-wide OVI task force grants. Many of the agencies had been collaborating on other projects, so the transition was smooth, Biles said.
The effect has been just as clear, state officials said. The county’s alcohol-related fatal crashes dropped from 11 in 2007 and 2008 to five in 2009 and four in 2010.
“What we’ve noticed is this seems to be working in Clark County,” Biles said. “When we do a checkpoint, it seems like it’s a ghost town.”
To receive OVI task force program funds, a county must average at least six alcohol-related fatal crashes in the previous three years. Fourteen of Ohio’s 88 counties were eligible under that condition this year.
A county also must identify a lead agency and commit to 12 OVI checkpoints (with up to 25 officers per checkpoint) and at least three press conference events around Labor Day. The requirements underline the awareness aspect of the grants and not the purpose of arresting impaired drivers, officials said.
“A lot of what we do is good PR,” said Carl Phillips, coordinator of the Butler County OVI Task Force.
Fighting impairment
In some counties, progress against alcohol-related fatal crashes has been difficult. In announcing a checkpoint this weekend, Montgomery County noted that there have been 10 such fatalities in the city of Dayton alone this year, compared with 22 throughout the entire county in 2011.
The 10 task force counties claimed 36.1 percent of the state’s alcohol-related fatal crashes last year, even though they represented just 11.4 percent of the counties.
In response, officials said they have changed some methods. Many have altered the times they operate checkpoints, moving them earlier to encourage awareness for after-work drinking. Others have instituted “no-refusal” checkpoints, which include a prosecutor on site and a judge on call to quickly acquire a warrant if a subject refuses a Breathalyzer test.
Carlene Maynes, coordinator for the Montgomery County OVI Task Force, said her task force has noticed an uptick in drug-related impairments at its checkpoints, which means they have watched for other signs of intoxication.
Local and state officials said the perfect outcome would be zero fatalities, but reality likely will necessitate a focus on impaired driving for years to come.
“I think it continues to evolve,” Moretti said. “We’re working to get the right dollars to the right players, and we put a lot of that energy in that every year.”
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