Driving a vehicle while impaired is a dangerous crime, yet continues to happen across the United States. Each year, about 1 million individuals are arrested. What happens after those arrests depends on the criminal justice system. As a MADD court monitor, you can get the insider’s perspective on the judicial system, while making a vital contribution to your local community. Your presence in court and the data you collect will help make sure our laws are upheld and the criminal justice system does what it is intended to do: Keep us safe Key Findings & Observations MADD’s North Carolina Court Monitoring Program observes DWI cases in counties throughout the state with funding provided by the Governors Highway Safety Program. In the year 2021, MADD North Carolina was able to monitor 2,863 cases overall; 1,227 of those cases reached a final disposition in that year. Data is collected by trained volunteers and staff by observing court proceedings held in District Courts in counties throughout the state. Due to the courts continuing to be affected by closures and capacity limits from the COVID-19 pandemic, it was difficult to monitor in person for part of the y ar. Due to the pandemic and natural ttrition, om counties lost volunteer court monitors over the past year resulting in a small number of cases being monit red. Cases monitored are selected by what is handled in court w n ttending in person or through random cases c osen from the court dock ts. Data wa collected both in person and through the public use terminals at the Clerk of Court’s Office. Through the examination of the data from 2021, the following are general observations for the counties with court monitoring in North Carolina: In 2021, 24 % of cases that were closed were dismissed which is consistent with the previous year. Common reasons for dismissals are the granting of pretrial motions such as reasonable suspicion for the traffic stop and probable cause for the arrest, and officer failure to appear. Often cases are dismissed when the officer is not in court as the defense opposes the states’ motion to continue the case. High blood alcohol levels continue to be a concern in North Carolina with 47% of all the cases monitored
having a blood alcohol level of a .15 or higher which is an increase from last year. The number of underage impaired drivers increased by 20% from 2020 to 2021.
As the pandemic delays added to the already large backlog of DWI cases on the dockets throughout the state, North Carolina has seen some counties such as Mecklenburg devote several weeks to try address these cases and get the older cases disposed of through plea or trial. It is not uncommon to see cases from 2018 on the dockets which makes the cases more likely to be dismissed due to issues such as the law enforcement officer no longer being available due to retirement or transfer to new location/agency or having difficulty recollecting the details of such an old case. The length is takes for reach a final disposition of a DWI case continues to be an area of concern that is a focus of the court monitoring program of North Carolina. About 64% of DWI cases take over 16 months to reach final disposition in District Court. This was a 15% increase from last year which is most likely an effect from the COVID closures and capacity limits which only increased the already existing backlog. IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE HAS BEEN AFFECTED BY DRUNK OR DRUG-IMPAIRED DRIVING, MADD IS HERE TO HELP. CALL OUR VICTIM/SURVIVOR 24-HOUR HELPLINE AT 877-MADD-HELP (877-623-3435).
(1) Richard, C. M., Magee, K., Bacon-Abdelmoteleb, P., & Brown, J. L. (2018, April). Countermeasures that work: A highway safety countermeasure guide for State Highway Safety Offices, Ninth edition (Report No. DOT HS 812 478). Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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