You’ll probably want to think twice about driving drunk or impaired in Guilford County over the holidays since there’s a special task force set up in the county just to catch you and get you off the road.
A DWI arrest may also mean that your car is seized and sold – with the proceeds going to school funding.
The objective of the Governor’s Highway Safety DWI Task Force Grant that’s being given to Guilford County is “to provide programs which address traffic-related issues such as unrestrained drivers and passengers, especially children, speeding, motorists driving while impaired, and community education on these issues.”
The total cost of the task force program is $631,854 a year, of which Guilford County provides 75 percent ($473,890). State and federal funding kick in the remaining 25 percent ($157,964.)
While sheriff’s deputies and police officers are always on the lookout for drunk and distracted drivers, Guilford County has a task force put together specifically to catch these types of dangerous motorists, and, at the most recent Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting, the board approved the acceptance of funding to keep that program going for another year.
The grant funding will support the efforts of the DWI Task Force and also assist with paying the salaries and benefits of task force officers. In addition, it will help pay for the kits used to test blood for impairing substances as well as pay for general supplies.
Also, the money helps pay for training and travel expenses, whether those are in-state or out-of-state.
The group has taken a lot of dangerous drivers off the road over the years. Here are the stats from December 2012 to Sept. 30, 2024:
- Total DWI’s: 8,066
- Total seatbelt tickets to date: 3,794
In 2024 so far, the task force made 339 DWI arrests, which was 6 more than in 2023.
The group also issues citations for people not wearing seat belts. So far in 2024, they’ve done so 91 times, which is down from 160 in 2023 but pretty much on track if you count the remaining months of 2024.
The total number of citations or arrests for 2024 to date is 2,161, while the total number of criminal and traffic charges last year came to 923.
The group also seizes vehicles using DWI forfeiture laws. From 2012 to Sept. 30, 2024, the special unit seized 707 – and, of those, 28 were seized this year.
Since 2012, the sale of seized vehicles has meant more than $4.6 million in funding for Guilford County Schools.
The new DWI grant money will be used to fund six positions – a sergeant, a master corporal, a DWI educator and three enforcement deputies.
The funding for this grant runs through the end of September 2025.
In June of 2024, when the Guilford County commissioners adopted a budget for fiscal 2024-2025, the board included the county’s share of the money – anticipating the need for it this fall.
Your car seized as you are arrested? What happened to due process? BB is moving in, almost by the day.
It depends. If you are arrested for a DUI and a sober passenger is available to drive your car home they can do that. If not your car is towed and you can pick it up after you’re released. If your car is part of an investigation or stolen it remains in the tow yard until after the trial is over and then depending on circumstances becomes the property of the police. So, yes, there is due process.
The state does NOT have the right to steal my car, any more than a drugged up carjacker.
Those who speed or drive while inebriated should assume the cost the cost for hiring and training more officers. They are the ones causing the problems. If jailed, they should pay for their room and board-some other countries require this, – they should help grow the food for meals, do their own wash, pay portion for heat/ac, electricity by cleaning the highways and their cells and bathrooms. This might help them learn responsibility and a profession – like those of us who are paying for their free stay!
Oh my God…
In some cases they do pay for the cost of being in prison, but not in jail. And there is a difference. Taxpayers pay for the cost of hiring and training officers. The person who is arrested for DUI does pay a fine of some sort that covers some cost, but I don’t know what fund it goes to.
Better watch Danny and Skip. A big temtation indeed. Probably a good idea to get some real auditors ready to review expenses.
Reminder folks: While this is a worthwhile effort, it isn’t something a Sheriff’s Office has to provide. Ever notice how these type things get released to the press in the 2 years before election time? If youre not sure, just wait a few weeks for the toy drive, or the tree of life celebration announcements.
Why not ask the Detention Officers who are still busting their humps working mandatory overtime shifts while still being dangerously understaffed feel about this and other special units that frankly the City or the Highway Patrol already handle?
Ask Officer Kaminsky who almost lost his life because of understaffing & the lack of coverage to adequately maintain inmate classifications how he feels.
Why don’t you ask the Patrol Deputies who beg to help those Detention Officers why they’re told they cannot help in the jails? They’ll allow it for a few months and cut them off.
The problem in Guilford County is the eight ring circus you have in command level positions.
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Ah… the righteousness of those on a mission. I love the smell of smugness in the morning.
People who drive drunk are guilty of reckless endangerment, but what constitutes drunkenness varies as much from one individual to another as their hair color or height. So as a big guy who’s been drinking for 4 decades, am I “drunk” when I drive after 4 beers? I most certainly am not, I can tell you.
LEOs have seen teenagers off their feet after 2 beers, and alcoholics who are straight as a die after a six-pack.
And by the way, the state has no right to confiscate your private property in this way. It contravenes the Fourth Amendment.
Oh, I know this position is unpopular, but it is the truth. And it ought to be very unnerving when power meets righteousness.
The old 0.10 blood alcohol limit was about right.
I’m bothered by the “Task Force” stops when they have drivers pull over at checkpoints on the road. I think it’s a violation of the Fourth Amendment by unreasonable Search. They are pulling everyone over to check to see if you’re drunk, wearing a seatbelt, or have alcohol or drugs in your car without probable cause. That’s a violation of your right to privacy.
If you’re driving down the road and speeding, weaving in lanes, driving too slowly, or doing something as you drive that causes an officer to question your driving ability, then they should pull you over and check on what is wrong. But to have checkpoints and look at every driver and inside every car, check on every passenger, is a breach of personal privacy laws. I oppose these stops on Constitutional grounds. Generally, they give out more tickets for seatbelts, expired licenses, tags, and mechanical violations than DUIs. All they are doing is generating money for the government coffers.
They don’t “seize” your car. They tow it to a yard to hold until you’re released if arrested for the DUI because they can’t leave it on the side of the road. Cars are only seized in criminal cases where there’s an investigation or it’s stolen. After the crime is settled the car is released to the legal owner or sold.
I agree 100% Zuzu. The armed agents of the state have no right whatsoever to gratuitously detain a citizen as he lawfully goes about his business. They might like to go on a fishing expedition as they nose around everyone and their cars, but the US Constitution is not an instrument created to benefit the interests of the state.
It is an instrument created to protect the rights of the citizens.
Arbitrary road blocks of the public highway are obviously unconstitutional, but a leftist Supreme Court ruled otherwise several years ago.
It need to be reviewed.
Hey Austin, Tell all that to innocent victims and families who were minding their own business and were hit and seriously injured or killed by a drunk driver. Maybe you should go do a ride along with the Task Force and see actual driving of a drunk and the way that officers get these deadly missles off the highways. Or do a ride along and see the actual carnage at a wreck scene and see if you still feel the same way. It might open your eyes to see what happens after dark while you are sitting in your cozy recliner. Sign up and go with a chaplain to the home of a parent or spouse and deliver a death message.
— Did I say that drunk driving should be legal?
Get off your high horse, mate – and try to focus.
4th Amendment. Hmm. “Well, we amend it as we choose. What are you going to do about it?”
I bet Sheriff Rogers will have the Task Force away from his Cigar Bars that he frequents after hours in his County vehicle. Maybe one of them will catch him after he has a few Bourbon Cigars, or Skip will come drive him home.
They won’t catch Danny driving he doesn’t have a license that’s why he has a taxpayer paid deputy driving for him.