Hopkins said the new team will further the effort of prosecuting serious and repeat DUI offenders, making Lake County roadways safer for all.
“The goal of this project is to gain the commitment of DUI offenders to participate in counseling programs to assist them with alcohol and drug abuse, refrain from driving while ingesting alcohol or drugs, refrain from driving without a license and not be repeat offenders,” said Hopkins.
Funding for this program was provided by a $331,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It follows a grant to the Lake County District Attorney for the DUI Vertical Prosecution Team.
“The approach is to utilize tools from throughout the spectrum of prevention, rehabilitation and punishment to reduce the number of fatal vehicle crashes, reduce the number of repeat offenders and develop a protocol based upon what is learned in this pilot project that can be duplicated in other jurisdictions,” Hopkins said.
The kickoff of the grant will be at the meeting of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Nov. 17, in conjunction with the issuance of a board proclamation designating the month of December as Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month in Lake County.
Joining the DUI Intensive Response Team and the Board Meeting will be members of Team DUI, MADD, Representative Mike Thompson, Assembly member Wes Chesbro and others, to demonstrate the extent of the commitment in Lake County to reduce the injuries and deaths from Drunk and Drugged Drivers, and reduce the number of drivers impaired by alcohol and drugs, especially among our youth.
The new project will continue to fund a vertical prosecutor for felony DUIs and serious misdemeanor and juvenile DUIs, according to Hopkins.
Vertical prosecution requires a deputy district attorney assigned at the beginning of a case to file the charges and request additional investigation, if necessary, Hopkins explained. That deputy district attorney then stays with the prosecution of the case through sentencing.
Hopkins said this assures accountability, puts the case in the posture to get the best result and reduces trauma to victims and families by having only one prosecutor to deal with throughout the case.
Since one prosecutor is assigned to the team, it allows that prosecutor to be specially trained to handle the most serious DUIs, and then work with the other team members in the intensive response component, Hopkins reported.
A victim advocate from the District Attorney's Office's Victim Witness Program will contact the victims and families to offer victim services and explain the court process, along with other victim services, Hopkins said. This position is not funded by the grant, but is a member of the vertical team.
A full-time district attorney's investigator and a part-time district attorney's investigator also will be funded by the grant and included on the vertical team. Their role will be to perform followup investigations, contact victims to obtain medical records and gather all the facts and evidence pertaining to the case.
The intensive response component will involve all the district attorney's team members and also fund a full-time probation officer, who Hopkins said will identify a number of the highest risk DUI offenders who have been convicted and request that they be placed on formal probation with specific conditions of probation relating to the DUI offense.
Hopkins reported that the intensive response also will include checking on probationers to assure that they are complying with the conditions ordered by the court, especially to not drink and drive, not drive on a suspended license and attend the drinking driver courses. There will be home visits, monitoring warrants issued and serving them, stakeouts, warrant sweeps, court Stings, preparation of habitual offender tally sheets for the cooperation of local law enforcement agencies in watching for these probationers who are identified as a high risk to re-offend.
The Intensive Response Team also will belong to Team DUI in the effort to educate the public, especially Lake County youth, about the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, according to Hopkins.
“To make our streets safe we need successful and effective public awareness, enforcement, prosecution, and consequences for those who drink and drive,” said Christopher J. Murphy, director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “This program fills many of the needs of the prosecution component of that formula.”
Hopkins reported that the program addresses interlinked traffic safety problems: the overall high rate of alcohol-involved collisions; the lack of resources to supervise DUI offenders on probation in the community to ensure compliance with probation conditions; and drinking and driving by high school students.
The program proposes a comprehensive continuum of intensive response to DUI that integrates enhanced enforcement, intensive supervision of probationers most likely to re-offend, high profile interventions (warrant sweeps, etc.), vertical prosecution, training, and education and outreach focused on high school students, Hopkins said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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