SCSO joins North Idaho DUI Task Force

The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office is dedicating more resources to keeping drunk drivers off the road.

SCSO joined the North Idaho DUI Task Force in mid-August and made it official last Friday when they participated in their latest DUI operation over Aug. 19-20.

SCSO Cpt. Jeff Lee explained that the decision to join the task force was made to improve the safety of the community.

“There are many benefits to being on a task force, but the biggest ones are the camaraderie, teamwork between agencies, and ability to share information to that team on alcohol-related events that bring in large numbers of people,” Lee said.

ISP Sgt. Justin Scotch was just as pleased to see SCSO join the team as the first non-Kootenai County based law enforcement agency.

“We’re incredibly excited for it,” he said. “The task force started with the larger agencies in Kootenai, just to kind of get it going and test it. Now that we are starting to spread out, we are getting more awareness, education, and enforcement to all five northern counties.”

Scotch explained that when an agency joins the task force, it is both a symbolic and practical move.

Symbolically, it shows that all involved agencies are united in dedicating resources specifically to cut down on drinking and driving. Practically though, the task force allows all involved agencies to coordinate their operation on the same days at the same times.

With the addition of SCSO, that potentially means that the entirety of Interstate-90 within North Idaho could be patrolled and focused on.

“The way I see it, as we move forward with monthly DUI enforcement operations, they’ll be able to work their area and ISP can head over there as well and help with the enforcement of these DUI’s in areas that aren’t just Kootenai County,” Scotch said. “We don’t want it to be the ‘Kootenai County DUI Task Force,’ we want it to be the ‘North Idaho DUI Task Force,’ so we are glad that it is spreading its wings and branching out to other areas.”

Over the course of the two-day operation locally, SCSO deputies conducted 56 traffic stops and had zero DUI arrests.

“We had stops where intoxication was investigated and luckily, no one was found driving over the limit and we saw no alcohol-related crashes,” Lee said.

When it comes to the tactics involved in a DUI operation, both Lee and Scotch stress that it's about being mobile and proactive so that officers can stop an alcohol-related incident before it even happens.

“In terms of tactics, we (ISP) don't sit on bars,” Scotch said. “I don’t feel it’s appropriate for us as officers to just be sitting there. It looks like we’re doing a stake out. We’re on moving patrol and we just keep an eye out for vehicles making traffic violations.”

Lee echoed this approach, pointing to moving violations as an indicator of impairment and cause for a traffic stop.

Timing up with the opening weekend of the North Idaho State Fair, the various agencies with the DUI Task Force in Kootenai County made 211 contacts, which lead to nine DUI arrests, one possession of methamphetamine case, one cocaine trafficking case, one warrant arrest, two open container charges, three marijuana/paraphernalia seizures, and one fake ID seizure.

Scotch said he was pleased with the results of the operation and was happy to see numerous people drinking responsibly.

“I stopped a handful of designated drivers that were driving their friends that were highly intoxicated, so I'm always happy to see that,” he said. “It means that our message is getting across to people and they’re doing the right thing.”

He added, “I love not arresting people. My goal would be to go out, make 20 traffic stops a shift, and nobody goes to jail. Unfortunately, we still see that our message isn’t heard by everyone.”

The North Idaho DUI Task Force will be hosting a booth at the North Idaho State Fair from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday where they will be providing breathalyzer/field sobriety testing and introducing themselves to the public. Partnering with beer manufacturer Anheuser-Busch, the task force will also be offering $100 Uber rides for that night of the fair.

The task force does not receive additional funding other than donations from the Kootenai County Substance Abuse Council, which are primarily used to pay for branding and promotional items.