Contact: Warren Tobias, Chief of Police

Provincetown Police Receive New Equipment to Combat Drunk Driving

- $4.5 Million Program Benefits All Police Agencies in Commonwealth-

Drunk driving is a violent crime that claims a life every 32 minutes in America. To enhance its ability to arrest and to help convict drunk drivers, the Provincetown Police Department has received a new Breath Alcohol Testing System (BATS) as part of the Governor’s Highway Safety Bureau’s (GHSB) You Drink & Drive. You Lose. Campaign. Each BATS is valued at $9,800 and requires no additional expense for a community to deploy. “Our new BATS will allow us to more efficiently process those arrested for drunk driving and to report the required information faster to state authorities,” said Chief Tobias. “Instead of officers pinned down doing the extensive paperwork related to impaired driving arrests, we can get them back out on to the streets to protect our community.” With a federal highway safety grant, the GHSB is providing $4.5 million to purchase 425 BATS units for local police departments, state police barracks, municipal police training academies, the MBTA police, and select college campus police departments by June 2003. The GHSB is promoting the BATS distribution program to local law enforcement with the assistance of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association. The State Police’s Office of Alcohol Testing is certifying the new BATS units as well as providing the required training and technical support.

All BATS will ultimately be connected to a network that will allow for on-line reporting of impaired driving arrest information to the Office of Alcohol Testing and the Registry of Motor Vehicles that is mandated by state law. This on-line network will reduce paperwork for law enforcement personnel processing drunk driving arrests. The resulting database from this information will assist those prosecuting drunk drivers as well as those planning safety programs to combat impaired driving. There were 234 people killed in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes in Massachusetts in 2001 - 49% of the 477 total fatalities that year. Alcohol-related fatalities involving motor vehicles increased 7% in Massachusetts between 2000 and 2001. "The GHSB is pleased to provide these new BATS to all law enforcement agencies to improve their ability to arrest drunk drivers,” said Nancy J. Luther, GHSB Executive Director. “The public can help our You Drink & Drive. You Lose. Campaign by driving sober, within posted speed limits, and buckled up. Remember, your best defense against a drunk driver is to always wear your safety belt.” Annually there are approximately 18,000 drunk driving arrests in Massachusetts - about 350 per week. A first-time drunk driving conviction can cost more than $7,300. For more information on the GHSB’s You Drink & Drive. You Lose. Campaign, please go to www.mass.gov /ghsb.