(Outstanding Innovative Project)

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Highway Patrol Officers in Utah were spending 30-35 percent of their time in the office writing DUI reports by hand. Delays resulted from the need subsequently to type these reports, which were often illegible or difficult to read. Additionally, because of the amount of time required to complete handwritten reports, they were at times too brief. Thus, the officer who made the most arrests also had the most paperwork, which was often done on overtime or for no additional pay.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The goals of the program were:

• To motivate DUI troopers to make more DUI arrests by making report writing easier
• To increase the number of hours a trooper is on the road, thus increasing the number of arrests
• To increase the efficiency of the paper-work flow through the stages of dictated report to transcription to report generation and distribution
• To expedite report completion so a trooper making several DUI arrests in one night is not backlogged

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

• Created a system where the trooper, identified by a password-protected identification number, dictates the arrest report either at the jail, by cellular phone, by office phone, or by home phone
• By dictating immediately, the accuracy of the detailed and necessary information for the report was improved
• Freeway Watch, a citizen group, solicited help of the Les Olsen Company and Phillips Dictation Systems to donate a system for use as a pilot program
• US West donated seven new cellular phones, adapters, and free air time for one year
• The UHP Training Secretary was trained in digital dictation equipment and now maintains a central file for the DUI squad which is accessible during regular business hours

RESULTS
The UHP DUI Squad has been an enormous success in Utah. The time made available by the use of the digital dictation equipment has significantly contributed to this success. Since October 1, 1994, the squad has arrested 1,012 impaired drivers, averaging 100 DUI arrests per month with a per trooper project average of 168.67. Additionally, the squad has been successful in seat belt and other traffic violations, felony and misdemeanor warrants served, stolen vehicle recoveries, and felony and misdemeanor drug arrests. It has provided Saturation Patrol on special celebrations around the state.

Time savings based on 40 reports per month per trooper are estimated at $62,000. Equally important are the timeliness, accuracy, legibility, and availability of the paper work generated by the squad.

FALL 1998