NCJ Number
74529
Date Published
1979
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This summary illustrates the history of the New Orleans Alcohol Safety Action Project (ASAP), designed to solve or improve the drunk driving problem in New Orleans, and summarizes significant project results of the enforcement, judicial, rehabilitation, and public information and education countermeasures.
Abstract
The program was Federally funded from January, 1972 until December, 1976. During that time, major problems in personnel shortages hampered the operation of the project. The Alcohol Safety Enforcement Unit grew into a highly efficient group known for their expertise in making driving while under the influence of alcohol arrests. The ASEU's presence in a target area seems to have had an impact on the number of crimes in that area. The referral rate from the Traffic Court Judges to the DWI school averaged around 60 percent of the DWI convictions. The rehabilitation countermeasures were a major aspect of the New Orleans ASAP. Objective results of a test randomly assigning 180 problem drinkers and 150 excessive drinkers to treatments (power motivation training, antabuse, short-term group therapy, problem drinker group therapy or Alcohol Safety Action School) or to controls are being computed at a national evaluation center. The public information and education countermeasures localized all of the materials used in public addresses, education materials, and media publicity, and made the problem and its subsequent solution more readily identifiable to the local citizenry. The expense of the New Orleans ASAP was $23,320, less than the planned $1,179,289.