DUI Arrests: Up in Meridian, Down in Boise

It's been a record setting 24 months for Boise and Meridian when it comes to drunk driving arrests.

Unfortunately, it isn't all good news.

According to Meridian PD, they've made more DUI arrests in the past two years than they have in over a decade. Does that mean Meridian is seeing an increase in drunk drivers? Not necessarily. Meridian Police Corporal Brandon Frasier says MPD has created a DUI unit of two officers who's sole duty is to find and arrest drunk drivers:

Those two officers consistently account for making right about 50 percent of our entire department's DUI arrests. There's always a predictable number of DUI drivers on the road, it's just a matter of how hard you're looking to find them. If you go from zero enforcement efforts to a lot of enforcement efforts naturally your arrests are going to go up.

Boise is experiencing the opposite effect. Boise PD has scaled back on it's DUI unit, and their drunk driving arrests have dropped 67% since 2006. On a positive note, crashes related to drunk driving have also plummeted in Boise in the past ten years.