What is causing the DUI arrest rate to drop?
What is causing the DUI arrest rate to drop?
All statistics show that the rate of DUI have dropped. Trends show that the DUI rate has been dropping for years and are dropping even more dramatically in recent years. What is causing the DUI arrest rate to drop? Any reduction is a good thing for society overall.
DUI arrests decreased by 7.2% in 2013, following decreases of 4.1% in 2012 and 8.0% in 2011.
DUI Conviction Rates
- 2004 – 76.7%
- 2005 – 77.0%
- 2006 – 78.1%
- 2007 – 79.4%
- 2008 – 78.8%
- 2009 – 78.7%
- 2010 – 77.2%
- 2011 – 73.1%
- 2012 – 73.3%
- 2013 – 73.7%
Orange County DUI numbers:
ORANGE
- Felonies (268) 2.1%
- Misdemeanors: (12,682 )97.4%
- Infraction (Juvenile) (70) 0.5%
Males 21-30 are the highest category of those that get a DUI.
Even in other states, like Arizona, DUI rates have dropped. In Arizona, there were only 24,674 DUI arrests in 2015, which was down from 29,250 arrests in 2014. In 2013, there were 31,891 DUI arrests, and in 2012, there were 32,174 arrests.
The number of arrests for high blood alcohol DUI cases also dropped. (Extreme DUI is the charge for those with a blood-alcohol content of .15 or more, compared with 0.08 for a standard DUI charge.) In 2015, there were 6,742 extreme DUI arrests. That was down from 8,414 arrests in 2014.
Though the number of arrests was down in 2015, the average BAC numbers were up. The average BAC was .158 last year, compared with .152 in 2014.
“Although it is heartening to see a downward trend in levels of driving under the influence of alcohol, it still kills thousands of people each year and shatters the lives of friends and loved ones left behind,” said Frances Harding, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
“We must strive to save lives by reducing this public health threat through education, prevention, and all other possible measures,” she said in a news release from the agency.
According to the report, the percentage of people aged 21 to 25 who acknowledged drinking and driving fell from 30 percent in 2002 to 19 percent in 2014.
The report also revealed that 4 percent of people aged 16 and older reported driving under the influence of illegal drugs in 2014, and 2.5 percent drove under the influence of both alcohol and illegal drugs.
What is causing the DUI arrest rate to drop – is is Uber?
New research suggests that Uber may be responsible for the drop in drunk-driving deaths across California.
The study, by Philadelphia’s Temple University, analyzed data on alcohol-induced road deaths from 2009 to 2014, summarizing that the mortality rate for such incidents fell by up to 5.6 percent in cities where Uber was used.
Professors Brad Greenwood and Sunil Wattal looked at the quarterly changes in vehicular homicides—which kill 13,000 Americans each year—occurring in Californian cities with Uber versus the rate in those ones without, finding that the service reduced deaths by a minimum of 3.6 percent wherever it was implemented. Should the study’s findings hold nationally, an estimated 500 lives would be saved every year, and the annual cost of deaths of this nature—$37 billion, racked up by the likes of medical care for the injured, and prosecution and incarceration for the perpetrators—could be reduced.
Contact us for any questions for our Orange County DUI Attorney Robert Miller. We are here to help.