Increasingly stiff penalties and years of public awareness campaigns appear to have had little impact on the number of drunken-driving arrests on New Jersey's roads and highways, according to a report in NorthJersey.com. The 27,838 drunken-driving arrests last year were the fewest recorded in the past decade, statistics from the New Jersey State Police show. But the figure represents...
A Montclair police officer provides backup to a traffic stop in this file photo.Increasingly stiff penalties and years of public awareness campaigns appear to have had little impact on the number of drunken-driving arrests on New Jersey's roads and highways, according to a report in NorthJersey.com.
The 27,838 drunken-driving arrests last year were the fewest recorded in the past decade, statistics from the New Jersey State Police show. But the figure represents a decline of just 3 percent from the previous year, and the number of arrests has held relatively steady over the past decade, peaking just shy of 30,500 in 2007.
As they have every year since 1999, police departments across New Jersey are taking advantage of a federal grant program that has doled out millions of dollars to put more police officers on the street over the holidays.
The idea is to crack down on drunken driving at a time when New Year's celebrations and office holiday parties can make the temptation to drive buzzed even stronger.
That money — $5,000 per department in most cases — is enough to cover overtime, gas and other expenses for an extra 30 or so six-hour shifts for each receiving department. In total, that represents more than 3,000 hours of extra drunken-driving patrols in Bergen and Passaic counties over the course of the grant period, which runs from Dec. 6 through Jan. 2.
The 27,838 arrests for driving while intoxicated last year represented a decline of just 4 percent from 1999, when penalties didn't include a mandatory $1,000 surcharge drivers must pay the state three successive years after their conviction.
Nearly one-sixth of last year's arrests occurred in North Jersey, and 300 of those occurred in the 27-day span covered by the grant.
Gary Poedebucky, acting director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety, said he had seen a "downward trend" in the number of drivers getting behind the wheel drunk. But he acknowledged that, in real terms, the problem is as pervasive as ever.
"The percentage of alcohol-related fatalities in 2009 actually went up slightly," Poedebucky said.
He argued that the relatively small decline in arrests since 1999 was due to a combination of enhanced enforcement and fewer people choosing to drive drunk.
"It's a combined effort of two strategies — more enforcement and more public awareness," Poedebucky said.
On the ground, officers said that they have seen plenty of drunken-drivers lately.
"It's out there, and it's rampant," said Michael Prelich, an Elmwood Park police officer who has arrested 49 people for driving drunk this year, more than many entire police departments.
"I do focus on it," he said. "If we can get someone off the road that's been drinking, we can save lives."
On patrol one night this month - one that was paid for with grant money - Detective Kevin Hebert of the Mahwah police said much the same thing.
Like most other cops on an enforcement beat, Hebert looked for simple things that might tip him off to something bigger: equipment violations, abrupt lane changes or, most commonly, excessive speed.
"You can tell a lot of times just by talking to them," Hebert said. "You might smell the odor, or they're fumbling with their paperwork."
Around 7 p.m., Hebert had one of his first stops of the night: a 43-year-old man in a Mercedes-Benz who was doing 75 mph in a 55 mph zone. The man was sober but, with two points already on his license and 20 mph over the limit, left with a hefty ticket anyway.
A half-hour later Hebert stopped a 30-year-old man in a BMW sedan for speeding. With an otherwise clean driving record and a quick admission of wrongdoing, that driver left with a warning.
"See, not everyone gets a ticket," Hebert said. He had been at work since early that morning and ended up continuing through the night, though he did not make any DWI arrests.
Mahwah's sole DWI arrest that night came from another officer, at 12:05 a.m.
The department had five DWI arrests over the holidays last year, but Capt. Bob Sinnaeve is quick to point out that the patrols do more than just discourage drunken driving.
"We've had past experience where we're catching people on warrants, drug charges and stolen vehicles," Sinnaeve said, adding that they planned some unannounced checkpoints as well.
"We try to strategically assign those officers at times when records show there's more DUIs," Sinnaeve said, noting that six officers are ordinarily on patrol at any given time. "That means Friday nights and Saturday nights."
Elmwood Park has been particularly successful, generating 22 DWI arrests the last time the grant money was handed out in August. That number is double what some bigger departments, like Hackensack and Englewood, produced over the same period.
Prelich said that his most memorable DWI arrest this year was not on a motor patrol, but while he was on foot, at 4 one afternoon last April.
"He had a 0.31 (blood-alcohol level), and he was talking just like you and I," said Prelich, a four-year police veteran at Elmwood Park. "He was a professional."