Local law enforcement agencies are beefing up police training to combat a large number of Wood River Valley drunken driving infractions, which account for almost 25 percent of all arrests in Blaine County, according to the latest available statistics.
The percentage is much higher in Sun Valley, where approximately two-thirds of all arrests are for driving while intoxicated.
The Sun Valley Police Department hosted a training session April 12 and 13 to teach local patrolmen the latest standards for field sobriety tests, techniques officers use to determine if a driver is drunk.
The training was co-sponsored by the Blaine County Sheriff's Office and the Hailey Police Department. Nearly a dozen officers from Blaine County, Hailey, Sun Valley and Ketchum attended the 20-hour course.
Sun Valley Police Chief Cameron Daggett said his department and other agencies are beefing up DUI training because it's a big problem in the Wood River Valley.
"Number-wise, it's the biggest crime," Daggett said. "It's just an ongoing problem—people need to be more responsible."
According to the latest available statistics compiled by Idaho State Police, drunken driving infractions accounted for 24.3 percent of all arrests in Blaine County in 2005. There were 201 DUI arrests in the county that year out of a total of 865 arrests for all infractions. DUI arrests were almost three times greater than the second most common offense, simple assault, which accounted for 78 arrests in Blaine County that year.
The number of DUI arrests was five times higher than the number of arrests for illegal drugs, which accounted for 42 arrests in Blaine County in 2005.
The percentage of arrests for drunken driving varied widely in law enforcement jurisdictions. Sun Valley police recorded the highest percentage at 70.4.
Hailey police recorded the second highest percentage. In 2005, 28.5 percent of all arrests were for drunken driving. Ketchum police had the third highest percentage at 22.5.
The sheriff's office recorded a drunken driving arrest percentage of 14.4, while in Bellevue the number fell to 11.4 percent.
Daggett said the percentages appear to be similar for 2006. Numbers provided by the police chief show that of 57 arrests in Sun Valley in 2006, 38, or 66.7 percent, were for drunken driving.
Last week's training session focused on teaching patrol officers the proper procedures for conducting field sobriety tests, which include horizontal eye movement, walk and turn, and one-legged stand tests.
Sun Valley police Cpl. Travis Olsen, an instructor for the training, explained that field sobriety tests are essential in determining if a driver is intoxicated. Drivers who fail the tests are arrested and administered breath or blood tests once in custody.
"We're going to be doing more training as time goes on because of the DUI problem in the county," Olsen said.
Other instructors were Hailey police officer Larry Clark and Blaine County deputy Connie Burrell.
Olsen said several local businesses donated food and beverages that were consumed by 17 volunteers who served as surrogate drunks for the training.
He said volunteers were allowed to drink alcoholic beverages and then were used as field sobriety subjects by the officers attending the training.
"The volunteers had to sign some pretty stringent release forms, and then we drove them home," Olsen said.
