In 2008, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funded the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association and the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation to review law enforcement crash investigative programs and methods used to identify sources of alcohol sales and consumption related to those crashes. Many State and local law enforcement agencies have implemented source investigations as a strategy to determine where alcohol was purchased and/or consumed when an alcohol-impaired driving crash has occurred. Our methodology for this case study began with informally inquiring about the use of source investigations around the country. After identifying a number of programs, we selected three States based on three key factors: (a) each State must conduct at least three source investigations each year, (b) each State must be geographically different, and (c) the three States selected must represent a combination of control and license States including at least one State that has the enforcement mechanism located within the liquor control department and one State that has the enforcement arm located in another department. Ohio (control, with external enforcement mechanism), Washington (control with internal enforcement mechanism) and Louisiana (license with internal enforcement mechanism) were selected. After identifying the States, we obtained an inventory of source investigations conducted since 2006. We then conducted semi-structured discussions with three agents/officers and three supervisors/managers from each agency. The most noteworthy finding from the qualitative research was that, although source investigations are resource intensive, the results – holding the provider of the alcohol accountable and generating positive public relations – appear promising. This report concludes with recommendations relating to improved interagency collaboration, training and policy enhancements, and optimising the use of the media. (Author/publisher)
Abstract