The Washington State Patrol now has a full year of data covering driving arrests and crashes since private retailers took over liquor sales. Despite hard alcohol being much more widely available, there was no increase in DUIs and drunk driving accidents.
Jason Mercier with Washington Policy Center compiled the numbers from Washington State Patrol statistics. “Privatization didn’t improve the numbers necessarily but it didn’t make it any worse either.” Mercier adds, “I don’t think you can draw a correlation that because of private sales now we have fewer alcohol related arrests.”
But State Patrol data does show a continued improving trend downward with 2,347 DUI collisions and 19,703 DUI arrests during the first year of privatization. That is down from 21,577 DUI arrests in 2011-2012.
The Washington State Patrol is down 80 troopers currently and as a result, the number of arrests is much more directly connected to the number of police officers currently patrolling.
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