Guidelines for a Model DWI Tracking System

The lack of appropriate record keeping across the country led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop guidelines for a model DWI tracking system. In the fall of 2002, NHTSA partnered with four states — Iowa, Nebraska, Alabama and Wisconsin — to implement the guidelines and create Model Impaired Driving Records Information Systems that:

• Track each impaired driving offender from arrest through dismissal or sentence completion;
  
  
• Provide aggregate data, for example, numbers of arrests, convictions, BAC distribution, and offender demographics;
  
  
• Conform to national standards and system performance standards;
  
  
• Ensure data is accurate, complete, and reliable; and
  
  
• Maintain quality control and security features that prevent core and essential data elements and/or impaired driving records from being compromised or corrupted.
  

NHTSA provided grants and the guidelines to the four partner states, all of which have some of the model components already in place and will be trying to fill in the gaps during the course of the three-year demonstration project. In 2003, NHTSA will publish the model requirements (which can be found in the Federal Register) and an interim implementation guide.

Features included in the model guidelines developed by NHTSA emphasize immediate sharing of data among law enforcement officers, DMVs and the courts, as well as electronic reporting to the courts and DMVs by probation, treatment or correctional agencies with regard to compliance or non-compliance with administrative or court sanctions. The citation tracking system would provide real-time tracking from the distribution of citation forms to issuance by police officers, through final adjudication and the imposition and completion of administrative and judicial sanctions.

Data generated from a model system would include the number of first and repeat offenders, referral rates to treatment, conviction rates and the rates of BAC refusal, sentence or adjudication diversions or deferrals, as well as a myriad of other information important to identifying the most effective methods of dealing with hardcore drunk drivers.

Where to Go for More Information on the Model Information System

Model information guidelines can be found in the Federal Register, Vol. 67, No. 113, June 12, 2002. Once the guidelines are published in 2003, they will be available through the NHTSA Impaired Driving Division and, along with interim implementation guidelines, will be available at the NHTSA website, http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov.