PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Located on the central coast approximately 70 miles
south of San Francisco, Santa Cruz is California's second smallest
county geographically with 439 square miles of rural and suburban area.
Between 1992 and 1996, Santa Cruz County reported 38
alcohol-involved driving deaths and 1,785 injuries. Overall per capita
rates for alcohol-impaired driving, public drunkenness, and alcohol
sales to minors regularly rank Santa Cruz among California’s ten most
problematic counties. Furthermore, a large underage drinking market
attends the University of California, Cabrillo College, and six local
high schools, where students at every grade level report using
alcohol/other drugs at substantially higher rates than their peers
nationally and statewide. Police “buy stings” consistently show that
minors are successful in purchasing alcohol from local merchants 30 to
50 percent of the time without being carded. These school survey results
closely corroborate with the County’s overall juvenile crime profile
where Driving Under the Influence (DUI) arrests and other alcohol/other
drug-related offenses combined accounted for 27 percent of all juvenile
arrests – two times greater than the statewide rate.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The Countdown to the Millennium is a
15-month project developed to prevent and decrease driving under the
influence. The objectives of the project are to:
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Increase the perception that there is a
high likelihood of apprehension and certain punishment for both
impaired driving and the illegal sale of alcohol
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Provide opportunities to develop youth
leadership and create alcohol-free youth and family activities
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Create a factual basis and a variety of
opportunities for educating the public and policymakers about the
prevalence of impaired driving and the seriousness of underage
drinking
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
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In conjunction with local law enforcement
jurisdictions and the California Highway Patrol, develop an
integrated alcohol/other drug-sensitive information planning system
(ASIPS) in a Geographical Information System (GIS) format. ASIPS
will be used to collect, analyze, and display data that includes
police calls for services, place of last drink, and DUI arrests and
collisions.
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Equip 12 patrol vehicles with passive alcohol
sensor devices to increase the frequency of detection and
apprehension of alcohol-impaired individuals. Additionally, conduct
a minimum of four DUI/DL checkpoints over the term of the project.
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Partner with community groups to plan and
sponsor First Night Santa Cruz Celebrations on New Year’s Eve in
1999 and 2000 with each event attended by 30,000 people.
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Provide Friday Night Live/Club Live
Program mini-grants to 10 school/community linked (Friday Night
Live) chapters to promote youth development, mentoring, healthy
lifestyles, prevention leadership skills, alternative activities,
and peer-led prevention initiatives impacting 5,000 students per
year.
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Provide eight Friday Night Live/Club Live
culturally sensitive school assemblies with follow up prevention and
youth development workshops and activities impacting 2000 students
over the term of the project.
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Conduct 12 police officer roll call
presentations about ASIPS/GIS results, education/enforcement
applications, DUI/traffic safety issues, and positive youth
involvement.
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Organize a “Policy Panel on Youth Access
to Alcohol” to focus community attention on underage drinking and
sales, traffic safety, and DUI/other alcohol-related problems.
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Develop an education, compliance,
monitoring, and enforcement plan that identifies and targets at
least 20 alcohol serving establishments that are frequent departure
points for impaired drivers and magnets for other alcohol problems
in collaboration with local law enforcement agencies and the
Regional Alcohol Beverage Control Office.
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Develop ongoing communication marketing activities to increase
bilingual news coverage and publicity. Plan a media advocacy
workshop for 50 journalism students, traffic reporters, and
newspaper editors to promote increased DUI coverage and
alcohol-safety journalism.
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Conduct at least one DUI “Teen Court”
in a school or other community setting.
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