When you live in a state that’s recently brought in harsh drunk driving laws, you’d expect that the drunk driving rates will begin to fall. And they will fall, but that doesn’t mean the state won’t still have a problem with drunk drivers. Any state, no matter how harsh the DUI laws, will still have offenders who ignore drunk driving fines and penalties, and who don’t bother to install required ignition interlocks because they want to continue driving just as they always did.
It’s a real problem, and one that Santa Barbara County in California wants to fix. They’ve just received a $145,000 grant to monitor drunk driving offenders, and by having that grant the county will be able to monitor their DUI offenders a lot more closely than before.
Santa Barbara County will be able to monitor their DUI offenders in a number of ways:
- Enforcing DUI court-ordered probation
- Conducting unannounced home searches to ensure DUI offenders are complying with court orders
- Subjecting DUI offenders to random and unannounced alcohol and drug testing
- Requiring offenders to comply with their court-ordered DUI education and treatment programs
- Setting up a “Hot Sheet” program to keep law enforcement in the loop as to who is a repeat DUI offender in the county and who could be driving with a suspended or revoked driver’s license
This new crackdown on drunk drivers in Santa Barbara County is coming not long after the state has passed one of its harshest penalties to date: ignition interlocks for all offenders in California. Although the new ignition interlock law won’t be in place until 2017, DUI offenders in Santa Barbara County will also be forced to comply with their ignition interlock program.
It’s all part of the new plan to keep California roads safe, and along with the new ignition interlock law recently signed, California drivers will be safer than ever.
