NCJ Number
74822
Date Published
1979
Length
124 pages
Annotation
This report examines the effectiveness of the Tampa, Fla., Alcohol Safety Action Project (ASAP), a 5-year effort conducted between 1972 and 1975 to reduce alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents by reducing the incidence of drunk driving.
Abstract
The project was divided into two major areas of specific countermeasures -- selective enforcement and judicial/rehabilitative. The manpower level in the selective enforcement area was kept at 21 throughout most of the project -- 11 men from the Tampa Police Department and 10 men from the Florida Highway Patrol. The Florida Highway Patrolmen were unable to continue with the project for the last 6 months due to manpower cutbacks. The officers patrolled during peak offense hours, stopped cars for traffic offenses, and arrested drivers unable to perform field sobriety tests. Cars were impounded, and offenders were subjected to breathalyzer tests at the police station. Arrest activity for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) increased 340 percent during the first year of the project, and remained substantially above that level throughout the project. DWI arrests by regular patrols also increased greatly throughout the life of the project, probably because alcohol-related arrests were viewed as priority among police in Hillsborough County for the life of ASAP. The breathalyzer test refusal rate increased from 5.8 percent in 1972 to 14.2 percent in 1976, although ASAP patrol officers had consistently fewer refusals than did regular patrol officers. Average blood alcohol levels of DWI arrestees declined throughout the project. Judicial/rehabilitation countermeasures commenced with court orders issued upon DWI convictions directing offenders to attend DWI schools, therapy sessions for problem drinkers, extended group therapy sessions that were discontinued in 1973 for unsatisfactory performance, and community services such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Salvation Army programs. Presentencing diagnostic information gathering increased, and a scheduling office referred convicted offenders to the proper treatment facility. The success of the rehabilitative programs increased dramatically when, during the third quarter of 1975, a procedure was adopted to arrest and incarcerate offenders who defied court orders for treatment or who failed to continue treatment for the prescribed period. Several components of the program were maintained by the city of Tampa after termination of ASAP; several of the enforcement and rehabilitative countermeasures have been adopted in other jurisdictions. Appendixes contain fiscal and personnel reviews, administrative evaluations of enforcement and rehabilitation components, analytic studies of specific phases of the program (many published under separate cover as well), and an index of all reports on the project or its components. Data tables are included.