Drunk driving can have the very worst outcome of any crime committed – human death – and local law enforcement takes the matter seriously.
This week, Guilford County’s effort to battle the crime is getting a big boost thanks to $142,425 in grant money that will fund 25 percent of the cost of a year of operating the DWI Taskforce aimed at keeping impaired drivers off the road.
The money, from the Governor’s Highway Safety DWI Taskforce Fund, is also meant to help catch speeders and drivers who don’t wear seatbelts or who don’t have their children properly restrained in the car.
The grant will help pay the salaries and benefits of Taskforce officers, as well as purchase the kits used to test blood alcohol levels and test for other substances. The money will also go toward the training and travel costs for taskforce members, including some out-of-state trips.
In addition, the money will in part fund six county positions devoted to addressing the issue: three Sheriff Department deputies, a sergeant, a master corporal and a DWI community educator.
The total annual cost of the program is $569,698, with Guilford County paying $427,273 and the grant providing the rest.
The DWI Taskforce has taken a lot of drivers off the road over the years. From December 2012 through July 2023, the task force made 7,588 arrests for driving while impaired and issued 3,639 tickets for not wearing seatbelts.
Also, in that time period, it has confiscated over 660 vehicles in DWI forfeiture cases with those vehicles having an estimated value of over $4.1 million.
From January 2019 through June 2023, the DWI community educator gave over 390 educational presentations on the importance of not driving while mpaired. Those presentations, usually given in classrooms or at community events, have been seen by over 18,000 people.
One recent change in the Task Force is that the High Point Police Department is no longer participating due to a personnel shortage. According to county documents, the High Point Police Department determined it needed the extra officers available for law enforcement in the city of High Point.
Lol, no officers so more waste. Better do a real audit.
That’s 46 people for each of the 390 presentations.
This is surely fuzzy math when taken as a whole. How about some numbers showing arrests and prevention before the program and now? What you’re at it, how about funding a stand alone drug task force?
It is not grant money, it is the taxpayer’s money. In addition to the lotteries, mebbe the state needs more revenue money from the gamblers, casinos, & enablers; to help fund “grant” money.
Let’s not mince words. They have taken the cars, by simple theft, of people who had “one too many”. How compassionate. How caring. It couldn’t have anything to do with the greed of government… could it? They have another tool called Civil Forfeiture, by which they abandon any and all pretexts for their rapacity, simply stealing your cash, car, or anything else they fancy. This – in America.
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And what business is it of theirs whether I choose to confine and constrain myself with a safety belt, as I go about my lawful business? It’s my car, my head, my medical bills – and my choice. Who the Hell do these people think they are? Are they going to ban skydiving, bungee jumping, bacon double cheeseburgers, and smoking?
Our “Public Servants” need to be put in their place.
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I have witnessed in my own lifetime how a great and historically free country devolves into a statist swamp that marginalizes the individual and his rights. The M.O. always involves a bogey man, whether it’s terrorists, “domestic extremists”, or drunk drivers, so they can rally the weak-minded sheep to agree to the denial of their own freedoms.
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This country is now losing its liberty. The measures outlined in this article are not about making you safer. They’re about stealing you liberty, one inch at a time.
As you know Austin, it’s the frog in the water pot syndrome.
You’re right Alan, and I’ve seen this movie before (is that a mixed metaphor?).
The govt is motivated by money and power. No what is best for us. We have not had a representative Federal Govt for many years. Leave the Country, where are you gonna go?
Without the USA, the Western World will disappear. Then the WEF, or some such clones, will run us ragged.
But Austin, our nanny-state government is just trying to HELP us! We’re obviously to stupid to know what’s good for us, or we wouldn’t vote for those morons in Washington. Remember, everything the government does is FOR OUR OWN GOOD. (sarc)
I’m very much in favor of drunk drivers being removed from our roads. But let’s be very clear about the source of the funding. What this article calls “grant” money is taxpayer money, nothing more and nothing less. There is no tooth fairy named Grant handing out piles of money.
Maybe they were referring to President Grant. Did he leave an endowment?
Good one Miller
Throw them in the cooler! Along with texters, dopers, below the dashboard steering drivers and other distracted drivers!
The Federal govt. is trying to mandate alcohol interlock devices, some of which can sense any alcohol through your fingers on the steering wheel.
Then your car will not start.
That is where they’re heading.
I like to drink beer. I also like to drive – fast.
I have driven well over a million miles, in the UK and the US, and I’ve had two accidents (both were my fault). In both instances I was stone cold sober. If I had been drinking beer the MADD mothers and their acolytes would claim that I had the accidents BECAUSE I was drunk. This is the logical fallacy known as “Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc” (after this therefore because of this).
So, by their reasoning, I must have caused those two car accidents because I was sober – right?
Therefore, sobriety causes accidents.
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And that is the absurd reasoning behind the jihad against drinking & driving.
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Cheers!
There are laws about driving while impaired by alcohol and drugs whether illegal or prescribed. There are laws about wearing a seatbelt and having your passengers belted while in the car with you. There are laws about your responsibility about the passengers inside your car. There are laws about the usage of your cell phone while in your car. If you don’t like those laws work through legislative means to get them changed, but until then you either follow them or when caught be ready to be responsible like an adult driver.
As for the “grant” know that the program will only be funded for the year and then deciding if it continues will be up to the County Commissioners in their next budget. I do find it curious that they did find funding to come up with $427,273 to employ six county positions for this program and the grant will only cover an additional $142,425. It’s interesting that they will be looking for an additional six employees when they can’t seem to fill positions in the Sheriff’s department they currently have, yet apparently at least five of these will be “deputies”. I’ll be interested in how they manage to do this, how long the training takes, if they use current deputies and just pay overtime, and how they fund the program after the grant period is over.
Lastly, I’ve always been the odd person against DWI/seatbelt “checkpoints”. I don’t have an issue with stopping speeders or someone suspected of driving while impaired. But the traffic stops that are set up to stop everyone in a specific location on a road in my opinion are unconstitutional based on illegal search and seizure. You are bebopping down the road and suddenly come to a place where the cops have set up a DWI checkpoint where EVERYONE is stopped, questioned, looked at, your car looked into, without any cause or suspicion of illegal activity. It’s just totally wrong for all the reasons and I object.
A law is merely an order or instruction issued by the state in an attempt to coerce our behavior. Whether we obey them or not is up to us. We, the people, are sovereign, and as citizens in a constitutional republic we delegate the administration of governance to our representatives and public servants.
They are our servants ; we are not theirs.
Not so long ago there were laws prohibiting black people from riding in the front of the bus, and imposing draconian punishment for sodomy, effectively banning homosexuality. Were those laws worthy of our deference and obedience?
Laws are man-made, not God made. We are under no obligation to submit to them if they conflict with our beliefs and conscience. In fact, we are under no obligation to obey any of them. Nowhere in my life history – or yours – did I ever consent to obey any diktats laid down by others. I break no contract when I refuse to obey people who lay claim to some spurious authority over me.
I am a free citizen.
So are you.