Albany County STOP-DWI

From Fall 1995
Volume II, Number 3

Denis Foley is the STOP-DWI Administrator for Albany County, New York. He also edited Stop DWI: Community Responses to Drunk Driving (Lexington Books, 1989). Denis describes his country's involvement with the NHTSA/OJJDP-supported PERF Project.

The Albany County STOP-DWI program is a cooperative law enforcement effort that began in November 1981 when new DWI laws in New York State went into effect. Fines for alcohol offenses, which had averaged $11, were increased substantially. This money was made available to each county to establish programs to prevent drunk driving. We've been very fortunate to have the cooperation of each of the municipal police departments in Albany County. We have created a partnership among the municipal police departments, the county sheriff's office, and the district attorney's office. Our office coordinates a proactive campaign to prevent drunk and drugged driving.

The STOP-DWI program engages in projects such as victim panels in the schools. We did a victims' panel for drunk driving offenders. In 1989, we started the first saturated blanket patrol in the United States targeted against drunk driving. It was a cooperative effort including every municipality in the county as well as the sheriff and state police.

We focused our prevention education efforts on the schools. In 1992, we discovered a school in Bethlehem (NY) in which two students, both of whom were under 21 drivers, had been killed. We looked at this school district further and found that 11 students or graduates had been killed in motor vehicle collisions involving alcohol within the last 10 years. So we began a program in Bethlehem. We worked with the school district, the police department, parents, teachers, students, and local businesses. We created a community partnership.

The New York State Police Department sits on our advisory board. They approached us with the idea of becoming involved with PERF, [which] gave us the vehicle to expand our partnership to every municipality in the county. The catalyst for this expansion was, of all things, a survey. We developed a pretest instrument on alcohol and drug use and drunk driving. We used this instrument in 11 high schools and 1 college. The results were dramatic: 58 percent of the students had driver's licenses, 72.8 percent of the respondents used alcohol, 10.5 percent used alcohol on a weekly basis, 39 percent used marijuana, 9.8 percent used marijuana on a weekly basis and 17.8 percent of the respondents reported that they drove after drinking.

This survey taught us that the problem is not just a male problem. In fact, women begin drinking at even an earlier age than men. It showed us that the problem begins before the students enter high school. Underage drinking begins at age 13. We found that there is very little programming at the junior high school. Everything is targeted at high school. By that time, it's too late. We are going to begin programs in the junior high and grammar schools. We are using the survey as an educational tool. We are meeting with every principal, mayor, and town supervisor in the county and creating community partnerships based on our experience in Bethlehem.

The PERF program allowed us to shift gears and deal with the issue of underage drinking. It also allowed us to expand the types of people with whom we work. We became involved with Cops In Shops, a Century Council program. We worked with the county and state restaurant and tavern associations to educate their members on the perils of underage drinking. We offered server trainings to every liquor license holder in Albany County. We have 900 license holders. Over 50 percent of them participated. License holders attended seminars. They were introduced to victims--people who had lost someone to drunk driving. A representative from the state liquor authority explained their responsibilities as license holders. We had an expert in dram shop liability. We had a representative from the district attorney's office who stated that they would prosecute people who serve minors.

We have increased law enforcement efforts in the area of underage drinking. Our district attorney has instituted a tough policy on prosecuting those who serve minors. Judges will no longer dismiss these cases. We have set up a diversion program called the YES Program--a youth skills enhancement program which combines alcohol and drug education and physical activity challenges. We are going to institute it in every court in the county so that young people who end up in court because they have vandalized a house while drunk, or held a beer party or falsified an ID, will have access to the program. We also developed an extensive public information campaign titled "Drink, Drive, and Die" which was based upon focus groups we held at two high schools. The advertising industry donated billboards throughout the county. Posters were put up in every high school and public service announcements placed in student publications.

I am very proud of the PERF effort. It focuses on a specific population that we had not targeted. I am proud of the cooperation we have from the participating agencies, including the state police and the State Liquor Authority. They really helped us. I think the best thing we did was working on a partnership with local agencies. We looked at our own resources and activities, focused on what we did right, and expanded these activities to the entire county.

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