Citizen Reporting of DUI–"Extra Eyes" to Identify Impaired Driving

The concept of citizen reporting of impaired driving has been in place for decades in the United States but has not been carefully evaluated as a separate countermeasure. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has taken the initiative to look more closely at a citizen reporting program to assess whether such programs are potentially effective in helping to reduce impaired driving. Montgomery County, Maryland, has created a highly focused variant of the citizen report concept, called "Operation Extra Eyes," in which private citizens are trained in Driving Under the Influence (DUI) detection cues and are equipped with communication devices so they can report suspected impaired drivers to the police more directly and quickly. Community volunteers are deployed during times of intensified enforcement, such as saturation patrols, allowing police to respond more quickly to potential violations. This activity is supplemented by student volunteers who are stationed in arrest processing areas and assist police officers in fulfilling DUI paperwork requirements. Information for this evaluation was gathered from interviews with key participants, from surveys of patrol officers, and from surveys of Motor Vehicle Administration customers. Additional data were obtained from State and local crash records.