43
OVI Task Force receives final year of full funding
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
This year is the last year of full funding for the Operating a Vehicle Impaired Task Force.
Funding is being phased out over three years due to fewer alcohol-related fatality crashes in Mahoning County. The task force received about $225,000 for fiscal year 2016 through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Those funds are used for equipment and to pay overtime for officers from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2016.
Next year the task force will receive 75 percent of funding; in the third andfinal year of funding, it will receive 50 percent.
Scott Weamer, assistant Canfield police chief, hosted a news conference Thursday announcing the funding and results from fiscal year 2015 checkpoints and saturation patrols, or patrols done near checkpoints.
There were 24 sobriety checkpoints from Oct. 1, 2014, to Sept. 30 of this year, and police interacted with 6,294 vehicles and removed 21 impaired drivers from the roadway. There were 3,645 traffic stops through saturation patrols and 70 impaired drivers removed from the roadway.
In total there were 91 OVIs, 206 summonses issued for driving under suspension, 161 tickets for seat belts and 20 felony arrests.
“We want to change the behavior of the motoring public. We want people to make better decisions about driving when you are impaired,” Weamer said. “We encourage [motorists] to use safe alternatives: designated drivers, DD4Hire, taxis.”
Weamer said alcohol-related crashes have declined 21 percent from 2010, when there wasn’t a task force locally, to 2014, the last full year of data available.
Susan Viars is coordinator for Mahoning Safe Communities, now housed by the National Safety Council Northern Ohio Chapter in the Ohio One building downtown.
“They can assist us with getting our message out throughout the entire county,” Viars said of the change. “They want us to hit events, community events, public events ... they want Safe Communities to be out there interacting with the public in a positive way.”
That’s a different strategy than previous years when the group focused on getting coasters and posters with slogans on them – such as “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” – in bars, taverns and restaurants.
Viars said the Ohio Department of Public Safety and NHTSA funded her group $65,000 this year while the organization focuses on seat belt safety and impaired driving, among other things.
While the news conference talked about impaired driving, speeding and using seat belts, officials also discussed distracted driving.
“If I’m in my personal vehicle driving, I see people texting all the time. When I’m in my police cruiser – we’re driving billboards and people see us .... it is a little harder for us to detect texting while driving,” Weamer said.
Officers from these communities and agencies participate in the OVI task force: Austintown, Beaver, Boardman, Canfield City, Goshen, Jackson, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, Mill Creek MetroParks, Milton, New Middletown, Ohio State Highway Patrol, Poland Township, Springfield, Youngstown and Youngstown State University.