Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course How Great is the Risk?
Sometimes, it is possible to enhance the perceived risk, at least for a while, through intensive publicity. However, media "hype" without intensified enforcement has never been enough to maintain the fear of arrest for very long.
Session 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
Notes:_______________________________________________
How Much Should the Public Fear?
- • Annual DWI arrests, in most places, equal about one percent of the number of drivers in the population
- • Annual DWI arrests equal about one percent of drivers in the population
- • The average violator commits DWI 80 times each year
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Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course
How Much Should the Public Fear?
We can draw some reasonable estimates of DWI enforcement intensity, based on what we know and on certain assumptions we have already made. Suppose we deal with a random sample of 100 Americans of driving age. If they come from typical enforcement jurisdictions, chances are that exactly one of them will be arrested for DWI in any given year: our annual DWI arrests, in most places, equal about one percent of the number of drivers in the population. That is one arrest out of 100 drivers during one year; however, how many DWI violations do those drivers commit? Recall our previous estimates that some 25 % of America's drivers at least occasionally drive while under the influence, and that the average violator commits DWI 80 times each year. Then, our sample of 100 drivers includes 25 DWI violators who collectively are responsible for 2,000 DWI violations yearly.
Session 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
Changing the Odds
- • Arrest enough violators to convince many of them it can happen to them
- • As arrest rate increases, odds are that it will happen to them eventually
Notes:_______________________________________________
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Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course
Changing the Odds
If an arrest/violation ratio of 1 in 2,000 is not enough to make deterrence work, is it then reasonable to think that we can ever make deterrence work? After all, if we doubled DWI arrests to 1 in 1,000, we would still be missing 999 violators for every one we managed to catch. If we increased arrests ten fold, to 1 in 200, 199 would escape for every one arrested. How much deterrence would that produce?
Surprisingly, it would probably produce quite a bit. We don't have to arrest every DWI offender every time in order to convince them that they have something to fear. We only have to arrest enough of them enough of the time to convince many of them that it can happen to them. As the arrest rate increases, the odds are that it will happen to them eventually. The law of averages (or cumulative probability) will catch up with them, and sooner than we might at first expect.
ession 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
Stockton, California 3 Year Intensive Weekend DWI Enforcement
- • 1975: Arrest/violation ratio of 1 in 2000 or less, 9 percent of weekend drivers were operating with BAC of 0.10 or higher
- • 1976 -1979: Intensive DWI enforcement on weekends nights
- • Officers intensively trained, enforcement publicized, justice community coordinated
Notes:_______________________________________________
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Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course
Several enforcement programs have succeeded in achieving significant DWI deterrence. Consider, for example, the three year intensive weekend DWI enforcement program in Stockton, California.
As early as 1975, a study showed that the city's total number of DWI arrests (700) were considerably less than one percent of the areas licensed number of drivers (130,000). The implication here was that Stockton police were only maintaining the arrest/violation ration of 1:2,000, or less. In addition, roadside surveys on Friday and Saturday nights disclosed that nine percent of the drivers were operating with BAC's of 0.10 or higher.
Then things changed. Beginning in 1976 and continuing at planned intervals through the first half of 1979, Stockton police conducted intensive DWI enforcement on weekend nights. The officers involved were extensively trained. The enforcement effort was heavily publicized and additional equipment (PBTs and cassette recorders) was made available. The police effort was closely coordinated with the District Attorney's office, the County Probation office, and other allied criminal justice and safety organizations.
Session 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
Notes:_______________________________________________
Stockton, California (Cont.)
- • Arrests increased 500 percent
- • Weekend nighttime crashes decreased 34 percent
- • Proportion of nighttime, weekend drivers legally under the influence dropped from 9 percent to 6 percent
- • For every DWI arrest, three others are contacted by police officers but NOT arrested for DWI
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Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course
All this paid off. By the time the project came to a close (in 1979) DWI arrests had increased by over 500 %, and weekend nighttime collisions had decreased by 34 %, and the number of operators committing DWI dropped one third.
The implication of this study, and of other similar studies, is that for every DWI violator actually arrested for DWI, three others are contacted by police officers, but are not
arrested for DWI. It is clear that significant improvement in the arrest rate could be achieved if officers were more skilled at DWI detection.
Session 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
Notes:_______________________________________________
Improve DWI Detection
Keys to success:
- • Officers skilled at DWI detection
- • Willing to arrest all violators detected
- • Policies and application supported by
agency In each state where the number of DWI arrests increased, alcohol related crash fatalities decreased
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Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course
Improved DWI detection can be achieved in virtually every jurisdiction in the country.
The keys to success are police officers who are:
- • Skilled at DWI detection
- • Willing to arrest every DWI violator who is detected
- • Supported by their agencies in all aspects of this program, from policy through practical application.
Since the historical Stockton study numerous states have conducted similar studies to determine the degree of effect that DWI arrests would have on alcohol related fatalities in general, and total fatalities in particular. Most of these studies were conducted between 1978 and 1986.
The results of these studies graphically illustrated in each state that when the number of arrests for DWI increased, the percent of alcohol related fatalities decreased. Further, the results of a study conducted in Florida from 1981-1983, showed that when DWI arrests per licensed driver increased, total fatalities decreased (12 month moving average).
Session 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
Detection: Key to Deterrence
- • Deterrence can vastly exceed the level of enforcement officers achieve
- • In Stockton, increased enforcement effort convinced at least one third of the violators to change their behavior substantially
Notes:_______________________________________________
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Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course
Detection The Key to Deterrence
It is important to understand how increased DWI enforcement can affect deterrence. Deterrence can vastly exceed the level of enforcement officers achieve on any given night. True, weekend DWI arrests can increase by as much as 500 %, as in the Stockton study. However, even though the study showed they started with an enforcement ratio no better than 1 in 2000, the tremendous increase in DWI arrests probably only brought the arrest ratio to about 1 in 400. Regardless of the fact that 399 DWI drivers avoided arrest, the increased enforcement effort convinced at least one third of the violators to change their behavior substantially.
Session 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
Notes:_______________________________________________
Example of General Deterrence
When arrest/violation ratio is 1 in 400:
- • Many violators WILL be caught
- • General perception level of being caught increases
- • Behavior changes
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Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course
The law of averages quickly starts to catch up with DWI drivers when the enforcement ratio improves to the 1 in 400 ratio. At that level, unless violators change their behavior, many of them will be caught, or at least will have known someone who has been arrested. Coupled with the heavy publicity given to the enforcement effort, those experiences were enough to raise the perception level of apprehension among DWI operators that sooner or later they would be caught. As a result, many of them changed their behavior. This is the best example of general deterrence.
In addition, during the same time that DWI arrests went up over 500 % in Stockton, citations for other traffic violations increased by a comparatively modest 99 %. The implication is that Stockton's officers were stopping and contacting only twice as many possible violators as they had before, but they were coming up with more than five times as many arrests.
Session 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
Increased DWI Detection Skills
- • Community benefits
- • Officers recognize cues and clues
- • Gained confidence in field sobriety tests
- • Fewer violators stopped avoided arrest
Notes:_______________________________________________
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Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course
What have the results of these studies shown? Basically, they have shown that a community will benefit from their officers' increased skills at DWI detection. Principally because of their special training, the officers were better able to recognize "cues" of impairment when they observed vehicles in motion, and they were more familiar with the "clues" or human indicators of impairment exhibited by violators during personal contact. The officers also had more confidence in the field sobriety tests they used to investigate their suspects. The most important factor was that far fewer of the violators being stopped now avoided detection and arrest.
The difficulty in detecting DWI among operators personally contacted by officers has been well documented. Analysis of roadside survey and arrest data suggest that for every DWI violator arrested, three others actually have face to face contact with police officers but are allowed to go without arrest. Direct support of that inference was found in the Fort Lauderdale BAC study, where researchers demonstrated that police officers arrested only 22 % of the DWI operators they contacted, whose BAC levels were subsequently shown to be between 0.10 and 0.20.
Session 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
DWI Detection Ability is Key
- • If violators are not arrested, attitudes and behaviors likely will continue or worsen
- • Use resources efficiently and improvement can be achieved
Notes:_______________________________________________
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Standardized Field Sobriety Test Course
The ability to detect DWI violators is the key to general deterrence and possibly, the greatest impediment to it. If we accept the three to one ratio of failed detections as being reasonably accurate, the implications are rather alarming. Consider the impact on a DWI violator's subsequent behavior when, after being stopped by the police, is allowed to continue driving. Very likely, these DWI violators and their friends will become even more convinced of their ability to handle drinking and driving. Further, they will come to believe that they will never be arrested because police officers can't determine when they are "over the limit." Instead of creating general DWI deterrence, this attitude breeds specific reinforcement. This helps to develop a feeling among DWI violators that they have nothing more to fear from police than an occasional ticket for a minor traffic offense.
On the positive side, the ratio of undetected to detected violations suggests that much can be accomplished with existing resources, if we use those resources as efficiently as possible. By just being able to improve detection skills of law enforcement officers we could experience an increase in the arrest/violation ratio of 1 in 500 without any increase in contacts.
This same, or better, degree of effectiveness can happen here.
Session 2 – Detection and General Deterrence
Notes:_______________________________________________
Alcohol
A family of closely related chemicals whose molecules are made up of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen.
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