HELENA – The Helena Police Department says the addition of an officer who strictly works DUI enforcement is yielding big results.
Lieutenant Jayson Zander says in the four months since the DUI enforcement officer began full-time patrol on October first, he has made 57 DUI arrests.
Those arrests helped significantly boost the year-end totals for Helena police. They ended 2018 with 303 total DUI arrests for the year.
That’s compared with 218 the year before.
Lt. Zander says being able to focus one officer has made a big impact.
“That position is one full-time police officer dedicated to DUI enforcement. We have him working, obviously, the hours when we have more DUIs out on the roads, so the evening hours, but obviously we will change those as different events and different things comes up,” says Lt. Zander.
Here’s a look at how the total number of DUI arrests break down by department for Lewis and Clark County for 2018:
Again, Helena Police Department had 303.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office had 88.
East Helena Police Department had 11. And Montana Highway Patrol had 119.
That makes for a total of 521.
Helena Police Department’s full-time DUI enforcement officer is made possible by a one year Montana Department of Transportation grant that H.P.D. hopes to receive again.
Reporting by Melissa Jensen for MTN News
