Drunk driving crashes up in Michigan, but arrests down as enforcement wanes

• Drunk-driving arrests in Michigan have dropped 28% since 2014, while fatal alcohol-and-drug related crashes have risen 40%.
• Experts attribute the rise in crashes to fewer police officers and less traffic enforcement, leading to more dangerous driving behavior.
• In 67 of Michigan's 83 counties, drunk-driving arrests have declined, mirroring a national trend

Traffic crashes caused by alcohol and drugs have surged in the past decade, as police are stopping and arresting fewer drunk drivers, according to a Bridge Michigan analysis of state traffic data.

Since 2014, fatal alcohol-and-drug related crashes rose 40% while drunk-driving arrests fell 28% over that time, to 26,408 last year from 35,060 in 2014.

Over the same time, car deaths blamed on alcohol and drugs rose to 445 last year from 319 in 2014.

“There’s just less traffic enforcement,” said Jonathan Adkins, CEO of the nonprofit Governors Highway Safety Association, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit representing state highway safety offices. 

With fewer police patrolling for drunk drivers, there’s “greater willingness to drive dangerously,” he said. 

“They don’t think they’re going to be caught,” Adkins told Bridge.

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In Michigan, the number of drunk driving arrests has fallen in 67 of the state’s 83 counties since 2014, a trend mirroring the drop nationwide. Meanwhile, alcohol-and-drug related fatalities are up statewide and in many counties, including Oakland, Macomb, Kent and Wayne.

Drunk-driving arrests from 2014 to 2023 were down 22% in Kent County, 20% in Oakland, 16% in Wayne and 15% in Macomb, according to annual state drunk driving audits.

Overall, the number of police officers statewide has dropped about 2% since 2014, from 19,262 to 18,879 last year, according to Ron Wiles, deputy director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.

Wiles said many departments are struggling to hire officers, the result of the negative perception of police work following the national news over the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, and the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.

“The last several years law enforcement has been in a hiring crisis,” Wiles said.

Remaining officers are focused on citizen complaints and other priorities, rather on road patrols for drunk drivers, he said.

That’s led to more tragedies like the ones Sue Strong, program coordinator for the Michigan chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, has worked to prevent.

“The impact for a family to lose somebody for somebody else’s (bad) decision is horrific,” she said.

Adkins said the country is at least 10 years away from one possible solution: the 2021 Halt Act will require all new cars to have a passive device that detects impaired drivers and prevents them from driving. 

The first cars with the devices aren’t expected until 2026.

“There’s a perception that drunk driving has been ‘solved,’ “ said Adkins of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “It’s just not. It’s still a very big problem.”