Creating Impaired Driver General Deterrence
Eight Case Studies of Sustained,
High-Visibility, Impaired-Driving Enforcement

RAINBOW BABIES & CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO

DUI TASK FORCE AND
PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES
Parochial concerns, city/suburb rivalry, and the absence of a shared sense of purpose had prevented the 60 law enforcement agencies in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, from engaging in cooperative traffic safety programs. A solution was found in 2002 with the formation of the Cuyahoga County Speed, Reckless, and Aggressive Driving/DUI Task Force, an organization administered by the Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital of Cleveland. The leadership provided by this non-governmental entity has mitigated traditional competition and rivalries among the law enforcement agencies, replacing jurisdictional friction with sincere cooperation and dedication to a sustained, highly visible and innovative program of impaired-driving enforcement, publicity, and education.

Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

SETTING

Cuyahoga County is located in northeastern Ohio, encompassing 458 square miles along the southern shore of Lake Erie. Manufacturing provided the historic foundation for the county’s economy, but heavy industry declined rapidly during the last quarter of the 20th century, with aging plants unable to compete with cheaper goods from overseas. Manufacturing has declined, but the county still maintains one of the principal ports on the Great Lakes and continues to serve as a collecting point for highway and railroad traffic from the Midwest. Large quantities of iron ore, limestone, gravel, cement, and iron, steel and petroleum products pass through the Port of Cleveland each year. International trade is made possible by the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which provides oceangoing ships with access to America’s heartland. However, the population of Cuyahoga County has declined steadily during the past four decades, despite the commerce of a busy port, extensive renovations, and creative efforts to revitalize the area, such as the founding of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and other world-class architectural projects. Cuyahoga County’s population has declined from 1.7 million in 1970 to 1.3 million in 2004. The population of Cleveland, the county seat, has declined correspondingly, losing 100,000 residents since 1980. Despite the declines, Cuyahoga County remains the most populous county in Ohio.

BACKGROUND / PLANNING PROCESS
In March of 2002, the Ohio Department of Public Safety identified Cuyahoga County as one of Ohio’s top 10 problem areas for alcohol-related crashes. Representatives of Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital were aware that NHTSA was strongly encouraging States to adopt a low staffing-level approach to sobriety checkpoints and that State traffic safety personnel were searching for a mechanism to implement the concept in Ohio. During preliminary discussions with staff of the Ohio Governor’s Highway Safety Office, representatives of Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital proposed a DUI Task Force for Cuyahoga County that would develop and test a model program consisting of frequent low-cost, low staffing-level checkpoints with coordinated special DUI patrols and an innovative publicity campaign. A key feature of the plan was to limit reimbursed costs to $2,500 per checkpoint in order to stretch the budget and maximize the special enforcement activity.

In November 2002, the Ohio Department of Public Safety awarded a grant to the Cuyahoga County Safe Communities Program, which is administered by the Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, to create a countywide DUI Task Force. The grant agreement stipulated that the Task Force would share its experiences with others in the state with the intention of encouraging Ohio law enforcement agencies to adopt the strategies and procedures developed by the Task Force if they were found to be successful in Cuyahoga County.

Program organizers established the formation of the countywide task force as their primary objective and set the following specific goals for the first year.

• Ten-percent increase in DUI enforcement and arrests.
• Five-percent increase in DUI convictions.
• Five-percent fewer crashes in which alcohol is a contributing factor.

Initial funding for the Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force was insufficient to support the planned special enforcement effort and no funds were available to implement the officer training and large-scale publicity and education campaign that the organizers hoped would transform the impaired driving enforcement efforts of individual police departments into a coordinated, countywide general deterrence program. Thus, the task force organizers were confronted with three challenges: 1) Obtain the cooperation of as many of the county’s law enforcement agencies as possible to conduct a sustained program of frequent, high-visibility special enforcement activities; 2) Obtain the participation of businesses, the media, and the public to support the program; and 3) Develop and implement a countywide public information and education (PI&E) campaign intended to reduce the incidence of drinking and driving. The task force’s plan for meeting the challenges during the first year of operation is outlined below.


LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY

• Develop procedures for conducting low staffing-level sobriety checkpoints.
  
  
• Train at least 50 law enforcement officers and supervisors to plan and conduct sobriety checkpoints and special DUI patrols.
  
  
• Train at least 75 law enforcement personnel in Alcohol Detection and Prosecution (ADAP) techniques, including the administration and scoring of NHTSA’s Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) battery.
  
  
• Invite judges to the training sessions.
  
  
• Encourage participating law enforcement agencies to conduct a minimum of four sobriety checkpoints.
  
  
• Link the DUI special enforcement efforts to existing Safe Communities programs to increase “buy in” and obtain economies of scale.

COALITION BUILDING

• Build a multidisciplinary, multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency DUI Task Force with a membership of at least 60 people representing law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, community leaders, businesses, MADD, news media, hospital and EMS staff, and Safe Communities program personnel.
  
  
• Create a partnership with the owners of bars and restaurants to promote the You Drink & Drive. You Lose. message.
  
  
• Involve local licensed beverage distributors to help spread message.

PUBLICITY AND EDUCATION

• Increase community awareness of DUI as a problem.
  
  
• Increase community support for DUI reduction/enforcement initiatives such as DUI checkpoints.
  
  
• Increase community support for strict DUI adjudication.
  
  
• Implement Sports Fan Campaign Patrols on weekend days and evenings in the vicinity of sports bars.
  
  
• Encourage alcohol-serving establishments to display program messages on window stickers, posters, table tents, and patrons’ receipts.

JUDICIAL ISSUES
Task force members met with several Municipal Court Judges in Cuyahoga County to learn about the issues related to the successful adjudication of impaired driving offenses. The information obtained from the judges was used to develop the training program that would be offered to the participating agencies. For example, the training included instruction about proper problem identification for locations of sobriety checkpoints, and every “line officer” was required to be SFST/ADAP certified. The first three hours of the Sobriety Checkpoint Training session focused on the legalities of conducting a sobriety checkpoint. Participating agencies have conducted more than 60 checkpoints and made more than 100 DUI arrests since the program began. No charges have been dismissed nor has a suit been filed objecting to the constitutionality of the procedures used during the checkpoints.

Interviews with local district attorneys revealed staggering case loads for many prosecutors, which contributed to the practice of pleading down DUI cases. Also, it was learned that many prosecutors have no training or experience concerning DUI detection, evaluation, and adjudication. In response, the task force sponsored two training sessions for prosecutors, “Protecting Lives, Saving Futures,” developed by the National Traffic Law Center, and a seminar concerning Ohio’s impaired-driving laws. The task force encouraged the participation of county prosecutors by offering free continuing education credits.

PUBLIC AWARENESS / PROGRAM VISIBILITY
Program organizers realized that the publicity had to be relevant to all residents of the county, an area in which people are accustomed to Nickel Beer Night and the “Dawg Pound” at Brown’s Stadium, and foster the image of a hard-drinking, hardworking blue-collar town. The organizers of the program from Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital convinced the managers of 33 of the 60 local law enforcement agencies to participate in the program, and were even more successful in engaging popular and financial support for the program. They accomplished this objective by conducting a series of unusual and highly memorable events that attracted enormous media attention to the program at very little cost. For example, they held a Holiday "Mocktail" Party, in which area hospitals, police departments, and fire departments competed to create the best non-alcoholic holiday drink. Local radio and television news personnel were recruited to serve as judges, with the intention of obtaining media coverage. Recipe books resulting from the event were later sold throughout the county. The program organizers also held a press conference in a hotel ballroom, with empty tables surrounded by yellow police tape to symbolize the victims of DUI crashes. A line of officers in full-dress uniforms stood at attention near the podium, contributing to the dramatic effect.

The organizers of the Cuyahoga County Safe Communities Program sent press packets and press-conference-related incentives to members of the media on three occasions before each conference to remind them to attend; 160 press packets were sent; 5,000 Designer Drinks, Designed to Keep You Safe recipe books were distributed by area businesses; 1,000 “Fast Facts” flyers were distributed by a bank and 2,500 at checkpoints and during special patrols; and 500 program decals were distributed to grocery stores, bars, and restaurants to display on their windows and cooler doors.

Reminders of the special enforcement activities were broadcasted on local cable access channels a total of 100 times (reaching an estimated 60,000 residents), and a public service announcement produced by the Cleveland Police Department aired 40 times and was seen by at least 200,000 residents. Forty-five television and 50 radio news stories about the impaired-driving enforcement program were broadcasted, and 25 articles were published in local newspapers. Officers appeared on local television and radio stations several times to further publicize the enforcement activities. The news coverage was highly supportive and extremely effective in elevating public awareness of the program. Also, officers presented information about the program at 20 community meetings (attended by approximately 500 local citizens) and made 30 presentations at local high schools, reaching an estimated 13,000 students.

The program’s extensive publicity efforts included 20 municipal signs that displayed the program’s message; four Ohio Department of Transportation variable message trailers parked on Interstate 71 throughout the campaign flashing the message; one message sign deployed in various locations in the county; the message board at the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport flashed the program message to vehicles leaving the airport during the campaign; and all police cruisers displayed magnetic door shields emblazoned with the program logo during the special DUI patrols.

Task force members obtained the assistance of the Greater Cleveland Auto Dealers Association, the Cleveland Indians Baseball Team, and ClearChannel Outdoor to implement a summer-long campaign that included 15 billboards, PSAs, police and judicial training, handouts for motorists at sobriety checkpoints, and a kick-off press event at Jacobs Field. The total cost to the task force for the entire campaign was less than $5,000, with donations exceeding $150,000.

KEY PARTNERSHIPS
The Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association (GCADA) had previously helped the local Safe Kids/Safe Communities Coalition promote child passenger safety. Task Force members encouraged the association’s leadership to expand their involvement in traffic safety issues to include impaired driving. The GCADA responded with financial and technical support to further the goals of the Task Force.

ClearChannel Outdoor, the primary supplier of outdoor advertising in Cuyahoga County, had supported the local Safe Kids/Safe Communities Coalition in the past. Company managers also agreed to help the DUI Task Force by donating 30 billboards with the You Drink & Drive. You Lose. message during the national campaign periods.

Ed Gallek, local Action News (CBS affiliate) reporter contacted the Task Force for information about traffic safety issues. Task force members cultivated a relationship with Mr. Gallek, eventually inviting him to formally educate the task force about prevailing news media perspectives on traffic safety and law enforcement issues. Mr. Gallek’s presentation taught the task force and participating agency personnel how to maintain mutually beneficial media relations and to present a traffic safety story with the intention of elevating public awareness of program-related issues. The task force discovered that a news story with a clear link to a program message can generate more effective publicity than the most sophisticated and expensive paid advertising.

SPECIAL ENFORCEMENT METHODS
Officers from the member law enforcement agencies of the Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force participate actively in the ongoing publicity campaign, receive SFST and checkpoint training, and conduct sobriety checkpoints and special DUI patrols throughout the county. Between 10 and 14 uniformed personnel conduct the checkpoints, with the force composed of full-time and reserve officers. All checkpoints are conducted according to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that were established by the Task Force during the planning phase of the program. The SOP requires that locations are selected on the bases of alcohol-involved crash statistics and officer safety.

FREQUENCY OF OPERATIONS / DURATION OF PROGRAM
Between October 2002 and September 2003, the agencies of the Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force conducted 32 sobriety checkpoints during which more than 9,800 vehicles were contacted and 51 drivers were arrested for DUI; 1,791 officer hours were devoted to the checkpoint operations. Agencies also conducted 1,100 hours of special DUI patrols during the same period, which resulted in 83 DUI arrests and several hundred citations for other violations.

PARTICIPATION
For every national and State campaign, and for local “Aggression Suppression Patrols,” the Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force coordinates the focused, high-visibility enforcement activities of 33 law enforcement agencies and supports the special enforcement with extensive low-cost/high-impact publicity and education. On average, a force of 11 full-time and reserve officers work each checkpoint, consistent with the organization’s low-cost, low staffing-level model that limits reimbursement to $2,500 per checkpoint. Usually only 1 officer is assigned per special patrol, but 3 or more officers were deployed in 10 of the 123 DUI patrols that were conducted between October 2002 and September 2003; this approach also is consistent with the model that limits reimbursement to $500 per patrol.

FUNDING
The Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force is funded by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, financial and in-kind contributions from businesses and citizens, and the participating law enforcement agencies. The grant from the Ohio Department of Public Safety for the first year of task force operation was in the amount of $169,500.

LESSONS LEARNED
The principal lessons derived from the experiences of the Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force are presented in three categories. The first concerns some of the obstacles that were encountered and the actions taken in response, followed by a discussion of the features that the organizers believe contributed to the program’s success. The section concludes with specific suggestions from the program organizers.

OBSTACLES
Program organizers encountered many problems during the planning and implementation of task force activities. The following is a list of the most important obstacles and the methods used to overcome them.

Sobriety checkpoints were perceived as staffing-intensive and expensive.
The task force worked with law enforcement instructors to develop a low-staffing-level checkpoint Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that incorporated cost-cutting ideas that did not compromise officer safety. Then, two Sobriety Checkpoint Training Classes were conducted to which all Cuyahoga County law enforcement agencies were invited.

There was more law enforcement interest than there were dollars.
It was not uncommon for law enforcement agencies to spend $5,000 to $10,000 per checkpoint in labor costs, usually as overtime expenses. The Task Force imposed a $2,500 reimbursement limit for checkpoints and a $500 limit for saturation patrols to encourage efficient operations and obtain the maximum special enforcement effort from the limited resources available.

It became increasingly difficult to sustain the interest of the news media.
Extensive news media coverage accompanied the kick-off of the impaired-driving enforcement program. When the reporters’ and editors’ interest began to fade, the Task Force developed innovative techniques to attract news coverage and the resulting free publicity on which the program depended (e.g., the “Empty Ballroom”). Also, the task force produced messages and press releases that linked program objectives and activities to State issues, such as the debate over Ohio’s compliance with NHTSA’s BAC limit of .08 grams per deciliter, and to national events. The members of the Task Force remained vigilant for opportunities to elevate awareness of their program by “piggy-backing” on coverage of related news stories.

Monthly data and fiscal management for more than 20 separate agencies.
The collection of performance data and financial accounting tasks became a burden and serious drain on resources almost immediately. In response, a CD was developed for each participating agency that included all of the reporting forms and deadlines. The agency coordinators entered the required information each month and sent the forms to the lead agency as email attachments. This procedure allowed the program administrators to assemble the data in master reports without having to reenter the information. Electronic reporting greatly facilitates the process and improves the timeliness of data collection and financial accounting.

Equipment availability for simultaneous checkpoints.
The Task Force began the program with one set of checkpoint equipment to be shared, as needed, by the participating agencies. It soon became evident that additional equipment would be necessary, particularly if the Task Force was to increase the visibility of the special enforcement program by conducting more than one sobriety checkpoint in the county on the same night. In response, the Task Force used grant funds to purchase the cones, signs, lights, generator and other equipment necessary for conducting a sobriety checkpoint, and then convinced the board of the local Safe Kids Coalition to pay for the trailer needed to store and transport the items.

Staff availability.
Smaller police departments lack sufficient personnel to conduct sobriety checkpoints in the traditional manner. The task force’s low-cost/low-staffing-level model allowed even the smallest departments in Cuyahoga County to participate.

Convincing local politicians to allow sobriety checkpoints in their cities.
Officers and managers of the individual police departments did much of this work themselves. Several departments found it helpful to first encourage their city councils and mayors to pass resolutions supporting national efforts such as 3-D Month and the You Drink & Drive. You Lose. campaign as a means to “warm,” or prepare, them for a further commitment to improving traffic safety. The law enforcement personnel then presented participation in the countywide sobriety checkpoint program as an effective and readily available countermeasure to the impaired driving about which the council members had demonstrated their concern.

PROGRAM STRENGTHS
The principal strengths of the Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force are a skilled and creative program staff, a sincere willingness to cooperate, and a clear sense of ownership of the program that is shared by all members. The cooperation and shared vision are fostered by the organization’s policy of frequent communication among the members and participating agencies. Everyone is informed routinely about all aspects of the program, including, finances, training opportunities, equipment availability, data and accounting requirements, legal and political issues, special enforcement schedules, and the special needs of member departments. A few examples of the teamwork and solidarity that contribute to this program’s success are described below.

• Personnel from two member departments donated their labor and all of the materials necessary to modify a trailer to transport the equipment necessary to conduct sobriety checkpoints.
  
  
• The task force’s two checkpoint trailers are moved from department to department without any centralized coordination by the task force organizers. Each participating agency is provided with a schedule of the year’s checkpoints which allows the local coordinators to personally arrange for the transportation of the trailers to the agencies in the county that need them next.
  
  
• Member agencies are periodically surveyed concerning their traffic safety training requirements. The task force is informed of the results and members then use their network of contacts to arrange for training sessions among themselves, at greatly reduced cost.
  
  
• Task force members share a sincere commitment to the organization’s objectives and recognize the benefits of frequent special enforcement that is supported by a strong publicity and education campaign. Whenever there is a task to perform – for example, when calls must be made to non-member departments – task force members immediately volunteer to do what is needed.
  
  
• When new departments show interest in joining the task force, often it is because they have been recruited by current members. Many times a department will become a mentor to incoming departments and help them with the reporting and public information requirements.
  
  
• All member agencies are eager to do their part whenever a new enforcement, publicity, or evaluation requirement is presented.
  
  
• Task force members realize that outside funding is critical to the continuation of the overtime component of the special enforcement program. For this reason, they are quick to respond to all requests for information about their program from state and federal agencies.

SUGGESTIONS FROM THE PROGRAM ORGANIZERS
Communications
The program organizers found it useful to prepare their information in a visual format (e.g., graphs, charts, photos) to illustrate the problem and support the argument that a countermeasure program is needed. They also suggest distributing the information to all potential partners (e.g., community leaders, law enforcement managers, news reporters, representatives of advocacy groups, and potential donors).

Assessment
The Task Force suggests, as an initial step in the planning process, to assess the capacity of local law enforcement agencies to participate in the program: Do the agencies have ADAP/SFST-trained officers? Do they have (or can they obtain) the support of local elected officials to conduct a crackdown on impaired drivers using checkpoints and/or DUI patrols? Do the agencies have the equipment, materials, and personnel that they need to conduct a special enforcement program (e.g., evidentiary breath testing device and certified operator, arrest forms, traffic cones, signage, lights, and generator)? Is the local prosecutor’s office qualified and willing to support the program? Answers to these questions will help determine many of the tasks that must be performed to prepare for a special enforcement program.

Training
Program organizers consider the training they provided to be the most important component of their preparation for the program. The training sessions developed the skills and knowledge necessary to conduct the special enforcement and publicity activities safely and legally. Further, the training elevated the level of professionalism and generated additional agency support and officer “buy-in” to the program.

Training for Law Enforcement Management Personnel
The Task Force conducted several eight-hour sessions of sobriety checkpoint training, each one tailored to the personnel in each department who would be responsible for planning and implementing the sobriety checkpoints. The training included:

• A train-the-trainer program on CD-ROM accompanied by notebooks containing the procedures and documentation for the checkpoint coordinators to use when training officers during role call sessions and pre-deployment briefings.
  
  
• Instruction on how to develop written checkpoint policies and operations plans.
  
  
• Instruction concerning relevant case law and court decisions.
  
  
• Hands-on experience deploying all checkpoint equipment in compliance with State of Ohio guidelines for temporary lane closure.

Training for Government Officials and Community Leaders
The Task Force conducted a three-hour training session designed for police chiefs, mayors, law directors, prosecutors, judges, and members of city councils. The training included:

• Background information about checkpoint rationale and efficacy.
  
  
• Instruction concerning relevant case law and court decisions.
  
  
• Hands-on experience setting up a mock sobriety checkpoint.

Equipment
Program organizers contacted the California Highway Patrol for information about the many sobriety checkpoint trailers that have been designed and built for use by grantees of the California Office of Traffic Safety. The CHP provided equipment and trailer specifications, which were reviewed by a working group composed of Cuyahoga County law enforcement personnel. The working group’s analysis led to a design that is responsive to local conditions and the legal requirements of the State of Ohio. The resulting trailer has a telescoping light tower, trailer-mounted lights on the sides, a large fixed, gasoline-powered electrical generator, and several portable generators. The trailer houses hundreds of traffic cones, barricades, signs, and supplies, including retro-reflective vests, flashlights, portable breath testing devices, and publicity material to distribute.

EVIDENCE OF PROGRAM EFFECTS
The incidence of alcohol-related injury and fatal crashes are the primary dependent measures for all DUI countermeasure programs. The first of the following three tables and figures shows the number of alcohol-related injury and fatal crashes (scale on the left in the figure) and the total number of injury and fatal crashes (scale on the right) that occurred in Cuyahoga County each year from 1994 through 2003. The second table and figure provide the same information for the State of Ohio, as a whole.

ALCOHOL-RELATED AND TOTAL INJURY & FATAL CRASHES IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY

ALCOHOL-RELATED AND TOTAL INJURY & FATAL CRASHES IN THE STATE OF OHIO

The data show that the numbers of alcohol-related injury crashes and total injury crashes have declined in Cuyahoga County and throughout the State of Ohio. However, the data suggest a proportionately greater decline in alcohol-related injury crashes in Cuyahoga County. Comparisons such as these are facilitated by calculating the proportion of all injury and fatal crashes in which alcohol was reported to be involved. Calculating the proportions of alcohol-related crashes per year controls for differential crash incidence caused by other factors, such as numbers of drivers, vehicle miles traveled, and weather. The following table and figure show the proportions of all injury and fatal crashes that involved alcohol during each year from 1994 through 2003 in Cuyahoga County and in the State of Ohio.

PROPORTION ALCOHOL-RELATED OF TOTAL INJURY CRASHES

The data show that Cuyahoga County experienced an alcohol-related crash rate greater than the state-wide average only twice during the ten year period depicted, and that the county’s lowest involvement of alcohol in injury and fatal crashes was achieved in 2003, the first full year of Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force operations.

The following table was provided by the Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force to show the number of alcohol-related injury and fatal crashes in nine of the municipalities that conducted sobriety checkpoints during the 2002-2003 program. The months in which checkpoints were conducted are in parentheses.

Most of the municipalities conducted checkpoints during the summer campaign, between June 27 and July 13. Comparing the number of crashes from the third and fourth quarters is one way to measure the effectiveness of the program. In six of the cities, the number of crashes dropped in the fourth quarter. In cities where the number of crashes increased in the fourth quarter, closer examination shows positive results: in Parma, no alcohol-related injury crashes occurred within a month after the July 3 or August 30 checkpoints; in Garfield Heights, no alcohol-related injury crashes occurred for two months following the June 27 checkpoint; in South Euclid, the only alcohol- related injury crash occurred more than a month after their June 28 checkpoint.

ALCOHOL-RELATED INJURY AND FATAL CRASHES IN SELECTED COMMUNITIES

CONTACTS
Kathryn Wesolowski
Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital
Rainbow Community Safety & Resource Center
11100 Euclid Avenue, WRN B53
Cleveland, OH 44106-6039
216-844- 7830
kathy.wesolowski@uhhs.com

History and Funding
Lorrie Laing, Administrator, Ohio Governor’s Highway Safety Office: 614-466-3250.

Law Enforcement Operations
Commander Mark Kwiatkowski, Bedford Heights Police Department: 440-786-3262.
Captain David Dearden, East Cleveland Police Department: 216-681-2332.
Patrolman Mark Fyock, North Royalton Police Department: 440-237-8686

Media and Outreach
Ed Gallek, Reporter, ActionNews: 216-310-3031

Partnerships
Chuck Cyrill, Greater Cleveland Auto Dealers’ Association: 440-746-1500