Law agencies want public help stopping drunk driving

Flathead Valley law enforcement agencies have joined forces for a concerted anti-drunk-driving public awareness and enforcement campaign.

At a press conference Monday in Kalispell, Sheriff Mike Meehan, Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset, Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial and Montana Highway Patrol Capt. Clancy King urged the public to get involved in preventing driving under the influence.

“We want to make a strong presence this year,” Nasset said, invoking the theme that the public recognize that “DUI is a crime in progress.”

He urged community members who witness a potential DUI to call 911 to report it.

“We try to emphasize it is prevention and education,” said Dial, suggesting that people should do what they can to prevent intoxicated people from driving and, if they can’t, to report them to police.

Meehan noted that most people carry cellular phones now, so there should be greater support from the public and people need to be prepared to be witnesses in a prosecution.

“This is what it takes — the community and law enforcement working together,” Meehan said.

“We would like to see a cultural shift” in attitudes toward driving under the influence, said King, who noted that the Highway Patrol has doubled its DUI arrests in Northwest Montana over the last three years.

Nasset said studies have found that prior to a person’s first DUI arrest, he or she has, on average, driven under the influence 30 times. That needs to change, he said.

“It has to be a mindset shift” among the public and potential offenders, Dial said. “It’s not acceptable.”

Dial said the public has a growing awareness of the damage that DUI incidents can cause, partly because of well-publicized tragedies such as the on-duty deaths of three Highway Patrol troopers in the Flathead area over the last couple of years. Two of those collisions involved drunk drivers.

Nasset said there needs to be an improved effort to educate those who serve alcohol that they have a responsibility to know the condition of their patrons.

Dial noted that effort is especially important because Whitefish no longer has any taxi services. He suggested there needs to be some kind of collaboration to restore a taxi service, possibly with the help of bars and beverage distributors.

Nasset warned that there will be increased “saturation patrols” in the Flathead Valley involving multiple law enforcement agencies. The patrols will target high-probability areas for DUI offenders and will be announced before they are launched.

Columbia Falls Police Chief Dave Perry and Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan are also on board with the effort but could not attend Monday’s press conference.