S.W. Coalition of Safe Communities Conducts Survey on Program Effectiveness

Project Characteristics Program Areas Collaborative Effort Innovative Underage Drinking Targeted Audience Jurisdiction City, County & State Law Enforcement Agencies Regional

Goals

• To gather law enforcement officer opinions and perceptions on alcohol abuse and underage drinking in SW North Dakota.
• To determine program effectiveness
• To determine law enforcement support of programs implemented in the region.

Strategies

A survey was distributed to each law enforcement officer at all levels in Southwest North Dakota soliciting their opinions and perceptions on underage drinking in the southwest region. The survey was entirely confidential with the sole purpose of gathering information from the law enforcement perspective.

Law enforcement officers responded to questions in the survey tool with; agreement, disagreement or no opinion. They provided their opinions on whether they believe a problem exist with underage drinking in this part of the state and if any changes have occurred in the past 5 years. Additional questions included whether they have enough officers and time in their shifts to enforce the underage drinking laws. They were also asked if enough programs existed to reduce underage drinking, if the programs are effective, and if they are willing to participate in them.

The Southwest Coalition of Safe Communities compiled the data and the results were sent to the head of each Law Enforcement Agency and their respective officers in the region. The information retrieved from the survey was used to determine if problems existed and to create effective underage drinking projects. This project has proven to be an instrumental tool used in developing plans to implement new strategies that target the problem areas in the region.

Results

• Agencies can determine where the Law Enforcement Officers may need extra help in the fight against underage drinking.
• Agencies can call upon coalition members for suggestions in implementing new programs and also ways to improve on existing programs.
• Through their input officers are involved in the problem identification process to reduce underage drinking.