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After years of stressing that driving under the influence continues to be a problem, Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis is creating a DUI Task Force to help local police step up detection and enforcement.
				The initiative won&rsquo;t impact the county&rsquo;s strapped general fund operating budget because it will be funded through grants, she said.
				About one-third of her office&rsquo;s cases involve DUI &mdash; a concern Salavantis raises annually during her public presentations to county council.
				In her most recent yearly presentation in March, Salavantis said there were a total 1,036 DUI cases in 2019, which does not include others categorized under different additional offenses, such as drug possession.
				&ldquo;The last thing I want to see is someone lose their life due to influence behind the wheel,&rdquo; Salavantis said. &ldquo;One single decision could change the rest of your life if you go out on the road and harm or kill someone.&rdquo;
				Salavantis saw an opportunity to increase public education and help police late last year when the nonprofit Catholic Social Services abruptly stopped providing programs utilized by multiple county offices.
				After verifying her office could receive approximately $310,000 in grant funding to cover all costs, Salavantis took over community safety awareness and police traffic safety programs that had been operated by the nonprofit.
				Under the police traffic program, police officers perform DUI checkpoints and roving patrols.
				Through this planning, Salavantis said she decided it was important to &ldquo;look at these cases in a different way&rdquo; and put more emphasis on training through a task force that will be activated Oct. 1.
				That led to an additional $88,541 grant from the International Association of Chiefs of Police to provide Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) training and Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) classes to law enforcement throughout the county.
				County council is set to approve a budget amendment Tuesday to add this funding.
				The training will help police task force participants throughout the county identify and appropriately respond to drug impairment, Salavantis said, noting the education will also help in the prosecution of cases.
				Many county municipalities have approved ordinances to participate in the DUI Task Force, which also allows them to seek reimbursement for additional weekend and holiday DUI patrols, she said.
				Nineteen police attended a recent two-day ARIDE training session, Salavantis said.
				&ldquo;For police departments to provide officers for two full days of training is a major sign they believe this is important and a priority,&rdquo; she said.
				The training is painstakingly detailed and covers signs of impairment from many substances, not only alcohol, Salavantis said.
				&ldquo;There are so many substances people can be under the influence of, and each has different signs,&rdquo; Salavantis said.

Luzerne County District Attorney creating DUI Task Force