DWI arrests, costs jump

By Bruce Wallace
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 9:11 AM CST

It is a message that is repeated every year, yet in Boone County the numbers of drivers arrested on charges of Driving While Intoxicated continues to increase at an alarming rate. But it is not only the danger of drunk driving that should make holiday party-goers look for a designated driver, it is also the increasing cost of getting a DWI.

The Boone County Sheriff's Department has led the way with pulling over and arresting impaired drivers. According to Sgt. Brian Leer, the implementation of a Traffic Enforcement Unit in 2005 has paid dividends in highway safety. Keeping impaired drivers off the road is that unit's key task.

The average number of DWI arrests by the Boone County Sheriff's Department over a five-year period was just over 47 per year between 1996 and 2000. After the Traffic Enforcement Unit became a part of the department, the number jumped to 195 arrests in 2006, then settled at 132 in 2007 and 147 in 2008 - numbers well ahead of those in the late 1990s. But in the first nine months of 2009 they had made 270 DWI arrests.

"We had a 3-man unit that has increased to four this year as a part of a state grant from MoDot," Sgt. Leer said. "We have some guys in that unit who are dedicated to identifying impaired drivers and getting them off the road. They are motivated to keeping the roadways safe."

Leer says that 2009 has been a very productive year for his unit due to their use of DWI checkpoints and saturations.

"It's not just in Boone County, but around the state," Leer said. "We want to get the numbers of crashes and deaths down - and they are down. Part of that is due to our enforcement."

Leer also credits MoDot, highway engineers and other factors, but he is pleased to point to the fact that alcohol related crash deaths in Missouri and across the country are down, leaving little doubt that the increase in DWI arrests is having a positive impact.

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