Local law enforcement officials are citing a proliferation of ride-sharing options, the high cost of going out and effective messaging as possible factors in some good news in the recent crime stats: The number of Santa Clarita Valley DUI arrests declined for the second straight year in 2024.
Virtually all Santa Clarita Valley traffic stops for driving under the influence are handled by either California Highway Patrol officers or SCV Sheriff’s Station deputies, and both reported fewer arrests in both 2023 and 2024 compared to the previous years’ data.
Both agencies reported a combined total of 1,076 arrests for driving under the influence in 2022, 862 in 2023 and 719 in 2024, for a two-year reduction of 33%. The available Department of Motor Vehicle data is much less current but reflects the same three-year trend heading into 2020, the most recent numbers available.
CHP Officer Carlos Burgos-Lopez said in a phone interview Thursday that there are probably a number of factors involved.
“We’ve definitely seen a downtrend,” Burgos-Lopez said, adding that when he was working the “graveyard” shift a few years back, “it was constant, but it’s been dwindling down.”
He said there are many alternatives to getting home that don’t involve driving under the influence, and the CHP also makes an effort to try to make people aware of them.
“We think part of it’s probably the ride-share apps have something to do with it,” he said. “We also do social media posts, and we try to push out information constantly for people to be responsible when they’re drinking, and to make sure they have a designated driver.”
A representative for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which is one of the CHP and LASD’s most active partners in the outreach, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
More recently the CHP has had DUI checkpoints that haven’t made significant numbers of arrests, but officials cite them as high-profile reminders that people need to think about their decisions.
Sgt. Mark Perkins of the SCV Sheriff’s Station said that while deputies have not conducted DUI checkpoints recently, he definitely thinks regular messaging about safe driving, which also is something the SCV Sheriff’s Station takes part in, is helping.
“I think maybe social media helps people to get the word out: ‘If you’re going to drink, use all the different ways to get home,’” he said.
“Or maybe people are staying home more, or maybe it’s a combination of the two,” Perkins said. “With the cost of everything, maybe we’re staying home more than going out and doing stuff.”
Burgos-Lopez said the January numbers indicate a relatively minor uptick — 32 DUI arrests for the first 15 days of the month. But he said it’s possible an increased patrol presence in the area due to the wildfires might have played a role in a higher number of arrests.
The SCV Sheriff’s Station, operating at 65% of its traditional staffing level, prompts the question of whether that could impact the volume of arrests.
When asked if a lower number of deputies might have contributed to fewer arrests, Deputy Robert Jensen, spokesman for the SCV Sherif’s Station, said it’s possible that could be a factor, but it’s more likely the result of a team effort between agencies and the public, adding the station hasn’t reduced its dedicated resources for DUI patrols, and there’s been an increase in messaging from the station.
The station did not have the January figures immediately available Thursday, but SCV Sheriff’s Station Capt. Justin Diez also said over the summer the station has maintained its traditional overall arrest levels — approximately 400 to 430 per month — despite its staffing levels.
The anti-DUI messaging traditionally revolves around the potentially deadly outcomes that drinking and driving can cause. Burgos-Lopez also said there’s been an increased awareness and messaging about other ways people can be unsafe behind the wheel, including marijuana usage and prescription pills.
Georgina Avilez, program director of the Southern California office for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a nonprofit that works on outreach and legislation, said in a brief phone interview Friday that driving under the influence is still very much a problem. The organization relies on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for its data, she added. Nationally, just over 13,500 people died in alcohol-related deaths in 2022, which is 37 people per day, or one every 38 minutes.
“Impaired driving remains the leading cause of deaths on U.S. roadways. In 2022, 1,479 people in California were senselessly killed by drunk drivers,” wrote Patricia Rillera, executive director
for MADD in California, in an email statement Friday. “Since 2019, drunk driving fatalities have surged by 33% nationwide. MADD California calls for everyone in our community to join our fight to end impaired driving. We need local advocates, partners, and supporters to help spread awareness, support victims, and push for stronger impaired driving laws to keep our roads safe.”
One of the ways the city of Santa Clarita reminds people of the dangers of driving under the influence, as well as recognize the lives lost in fatal crashes, is the Youth Grove at Central Park.
Names are added every August to memorialize those who have died in area crashes during a somber ceremony, represented by 119 tree stumps to symbolize lives cut short.
While agencies try to get the word out through as many ways as possible, the messaging is pretty much always the same, Burgos-Lopez said:
“We always touch on DUIs, and making a plan, having a plan to get home, having either a designated driver, using a ride share, a taxi, maybe even staying in that area again, the hotel, so you’re not driving after you’ve been drinking.”