Two Compelling Findings from 2012 Arizona DUI Statistics

How Arizona is Utilizing DUI Statistics to Combat Impaired Driving

Arizona DUI Arrest Statistics

On December 27, 2012 the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) released Statewide DUI enforcement statistics.

The statistics are reported for the cumulative time frame November 23, 2012, before Thanksgiving, to December 27, 2012, just after Christmas.

• During that time there were a total of 67,225 traffic stops by police. This represented 26% more stops made over 2011.
• Total DUI arrests were 3,353, which represented a 14% increase in 2012 over 2011.
• Of the total, 10% or 341 were Felony DUI arrests, and 90% were misdemeanors, which was the same as last year.
• Of the total DUI arrests, 888 were Extreme DUI, which means the driver’s Blood Alcohol Content was 0.15% or more. The number of extreme DUI arrests represented 26% of all DUI charges.
• Of the arrests, 256 were repeat impaired driving offenses which represented 7% of the total.
• Underage 21 drinking arrests totaled 149, representing 4% of the total.
• Of the total, there were 672 drug related DUI arrests which represented 20% of all DUI charges; and 2681 or 80% alcohol DUI.

What the Statistics Tell Us – Arizona’s Action Plan   

Statistics and reports are meaningless unless they can be used for an action plan to produce desired results. It appears the AZGOHS has acted on them.

There were two compelling statistics thus far to note. First is the total number of traffic stops by police. There were 49,673 in 2011. In in contrast, police made 67,225 DUI traffic stops in 2012.  This is 26.27% increase from last year to this year.

The total number of DUI arrests during this time frame thus, also increased year 2012 over last year 2011 by 14%. This suggests that the increase in arrests may be contributed to the increase in the total number of traffic stops in 2012.

Second, relates to Extreme DUI (BAC 0.15% or more) incidents. The percentage of Extreme DUI arrests represented 27.2% in 2011 and 26.4% in 2012 of the total arrests. Although there was a slight decrease in 2012 from 2011, Extreme DUI they still constituted over 1/4^th of all impaired driving arrests. As a result, the AGOHS announced it will be focusing closer on Extreme DUI arrests, in an effort to combat and reduce these numbers.

To accomplish this, they have created larger, more effective DUI task forces. They joined forces 70 agencies strong, into a super DUI Task forces. The sum of all, will increasing their presence, and use combined resources for stronger, more effective valley-wide enforcement.

They set up at least two central command centers with mobile units targeting a variety of geographical areas throughout the valley. The Arizona Department of Public Service (ADPS), announced last week, that they will employ this type of DUI enforcement over staged DUI and Safety Checkpoints. The message they wish to send is that they “are everywhere”.