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Mahoning County OVI Task Force funding being "phased out"
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
The Mahoning County Operating a Vehicle Impaired Task Force has been notified its funding is being “phased out.”
Scott Weamer, assistant Canfield police chief, believes the combination of education and enforcement has led to fewer alcohol-related fatal traffic crashes locally.
The threshold for funding is 18 alcohol-involved fatal crashes over a three-year period. Locally there were nine fatal alcohol-involved crashes in 2012; two in 2013; one in 2014; and three so far this year.
Due to that reduction, the OVI Task Force is being phased out of its funding provided through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“I’m surprised we made that big of an impact that early,” Weamer said.
The task force will be 100 percent funded next year, with that funding reduced to 50 percent by the third year. There is no funding in the fourth year, and local agencies are discussing how to continue the program at that point.
“I think a lot of people measure [our] success by ‘Well, how many drunks did you arrest? How many tickets were written? How many drug arrests were made?’ That kind of thing,” Weamer said. “While that’s important, the more important part of it is did we educate people? Did we get people to make responsible decisions? Did we make them think twice about driving when they were impaired?
“So, to me, when we go out and do a checkpoint and we don’t arrest any drunks, that’s a success. That means we’re having an impact.”
The task force received $224,952 in funding for the funding year Oct. 1, 2014, to Sept. 30 this year from NHTSA. The bulk of that money goes for overtime pay for officers working sobriety checkpoints or saturation patrols.
The local OVI task force was administered by Goshen Township for several years then the funding was cut. Canfield Police wrote a grant after one year of no programming and received funding in October 2010. The grant requires 12 checkpoints, but the local task force will operate 24 this year.
The task force works with Mahoning Safe Communities, hosted by the Village of New Middletown Police Department. That is the educational aspect of the task force.
“Safe Communities is providing the statistics ... [and] putting the public education material out there at the malls and health fairs and community events. And that’s what really impacts people,” said village police Chief Vincent D’Egidio.
“It’s great that our alcohol-related fatalities are down, but ... they’re going to go right back up. It’s been that way for every county that’s lost [OVI] because of the reduction of alcohol-related fatalities,” said Susan Viars, the Mahoning Safe Communities coordinator.
Viars has partnered with many local businesses, such as area bars and restaurants with displaying phone numbers for cabs and giving out free drink coasters to bars. Safe Communities also focuses on motorcycle safety, seat-belt compliance and distracted driving.
“It’s nice that Safe Communities can provide the task force with materials that they would need” such as a card that officers give to motorists driving through checkpoints, Viars said.
The task force picks checkpoint or areas for enforcement through saturation patrols based on crash data. It regularly meets once every few weeks.
“I think a lot of people have been affected, whether personally or knowing someone, that’s been affected by traffic fatalities,” Weamer said. “Way too many people die on the roadways not just in this county or state, but countrywide.”