MADD Volunteers to Look For Florida DUI Offenders

Program calls for MADD observers to help police spot drunk drivers in Florida.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving has announced a program they developed that calls for partnerships with law enforcement to report potential drunk drivers. Called a ‘first in the nation’, MADD will work with the Manatee County Florida Sheriff’s Department to test the program.

MADD calls the initiative ‘TOP’ or Traffic Observation Program. It calls for teams of two trained observers to travel the roads looking for signs of possible Florida DUI offenses. When they spot suspected drunk drivers, the teams will contact the Manatee County Sheriff’s Department. The observers will be in personal, unmarked vehicles using their own cell phones.

‘TOP’ will be initiated over the Labor Day weekend and continued every weekend and on some weeknights for six months, after which the Florida pilot program will be evaluated. MADD has said it will be collecting its own data on response times, percentage of arrests and the ratio of observations to interceptions. There is no indication the citizen action will report the accuracy of their observations in terms of false arrests or unwarranted traffic stops.

A MADD spokesperson said they are “only doing what every citizen could and should do.”

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