The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) received a GHSA and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility's (Responsibility.org) 2017 drug-impaired driving grant. With this funding, WisDOT provided Advanced Roadside Impairment Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) training to 310 law enforcement officers throughout the state.
From 2011-2015, 23.3% of Wisconsin's traffic fatalities were related to drugged driving. To combat this problem, WisDOT used the funding to hold 17 ARIDE courses across all four quadrants of the state in 2017, providing nearly 5,000 hours of instruction to officers. These classes helped to increase the number of ARIDE-trained officers in Wiconsin by 17.4% from the prior year.
As a result of the program, WisDOT has seen a growing desire for ARIDE training among law enforcement officers, which led to an additional five courses being added to the training schedule in 2018. These additional ARIDE-trained officers, plus the 310 officers trained in 2017, will help recognize and remove drugged drivers from the road as Wisconsin continues to tackle this dangerous behavior.