DUI Task Force Plans to Increase efforts county-wide

The Jefferson County DUI Task Force is the county’s local prevention group that works to spread awareness for the challenges facing the county when it comes to DUIs, underage drinking and substance abuse. As summer starts, these problems become more evident, making the task forces’s outreach even more of a priority. To do this the group makes appearances at as many community events as possible – such as Clancy Days and the County Fair – and by being involved at the local schools. The task force has seen success for the North end of the county, but has often faced some difficulty when reaching the South end.

Each year the task force publishes a plan for the coming year. They make their plan based off the results and numbers seen in the previous year and then apply it to the coming year. In the 2022 plan, which runs until the end of June, they outlined details on their hopes to increase media outreach, increase the work with junior members and continue evaluations on the effectiveness of their work. This plan had positive results of more outreach, especially in the schools, which added to the efforts for the coming year. 

As the number of crashes and deaths related to drunk driving reach higher numbers (and statistically are even higher in the summer) Barb Reiter – one of the prevention specialists who handles coordinating events and the Junior task force – is working to strengthen efforts locally. First she is identifying the biggest challenges. Reiter said the South end of the county has been harder to reach just because of distance and that there is some separation between the communities on each end of the county. “It’s difficult because most of our meetings take place here in Boulder,” she said. “It has been difficult to set up meetings that work for everyone to go to the South end, but we have been able to expand who can attend with things like Zoom.”