DA’s Office gets a $225K DUI grant
Funding to aid special team prosecute alcohol- and drug-impaired driving cases
If you are thinking of driving after drinking or using drugs, you are risking arrest, prosecution, fines, losing your driver’s license and risking your own life and the lives of others.
Helped by a new grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety, the Solano County District Attorney’s Office is more than ready to hold impaired drivers to account.
District Attorney Krishna Abrams said her office recently received a $225,000 OTS grant for a special team to prosecute alcohol- and drugimpaired driving cases, with the funding becoming available for the ninth time in as many years.
“The prosecution of driving-while-under-theinfluence cases remains a top priority of our office, as these cases too often result in tragedy,” she said in a press release issued late Tuesday.
“If you drink or use drugs and decide to drive, you put lives at risk,” OTS Director Barbara Rooney added in the prepared statement. “This funding from the OTS makes sure that those who make the choice to drive under the influence are held accountable for their actions.”
In addition to helping form a special prosecution team, funding will be used to: • Develop protocols for handling cases through every step of the criminal process. • Provide training for prosecutors and investigators through California’s Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor Program. • Host quarterly regional meetings with law enforcement partners to improve DUI investigations and prosecutions.
Last year, the DA’s prosecution team filed 1612 DUI cases, including 230 DUI drug cases and 68 DUI combined alcohol and drug cases, Abrams noted.
The grant program, also funded through the National Highway Traffic Administration, continues to Sept. 30, 2021.