driver. Advise media when checkpoints will be held. Use major league players or star power to help get more coverage with a traffic safety message or awareness. Public perception does not easily sway with statistics. It is important to put a face to a crime and help the public as well as law enforcement officers see the reality of impaired driving through the lens of its victims. These visuals can be accomplished in a number of ways: dedicate checkpoints to victims; park crashed cars in police or school lots; pair a law enforcement officer with a victim to share the story of their crash; and incorporate victim stories into roll call briefings. MADD could develop a powerful media campaign with images of victims and the families of those who lost them; emphasize drunk driving as murder and a crime, not an accident. Create a generation that will see drunk driving as totally unacceptable, and help the public realize the real scope of 11,000 lives a year and how much that eclipses other issues that are perceived as major issues. We cannot expect from the public what we do not believe or do ourselves; this was a difficult message expressed by some law enforcement leaders at the Summit who have had to hold their own officers accountable for drunk driving. Good behavior must begin with the agency and impaired driving should not be tolerated. When drug impaired driving cases are dismissed or pled down, officers often become discouraged, which impacts their motivation in making impaired driving arrests. One way to combat this issue is to change judicial perspective as well—by educating and training prosecutors and judges in the DRE program. MADD could: Meet with state attorneys and let them know how important the issue is. Push for dedicated misdemeanor DUI prosecutors and ask that that position is not always a new prosecutor who gets promoted up after they become successful. MADD’s Court Monitoring program can help change the overall judicial culture around impaired driving by holding the system accountable. MADD currently has court monitors in 13 states and would like to see the program expand. Many officers praised the program and the results it was producing in the court system. They recommended MADD publicize report cards for judges and prosecutors for further accountability. Moreover, motivation can often be bolstered through simple recognition. MADD holds a Law Enforcement Recognition program in many areas across the nation, but law enforcement leadership should find additional ways to
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