Drunk Driving Arrests Continue to Decline in California : Law enforcement: Cases involving Latinos also drop. A Spanish-language education program is credited.

Arrests for drunk driving continue to drop in California--although not as sharply as in the past--and the large number of Latinos among those arrested is gradually declining, according to statistics recently released by the California Department of Justice.

However, Latinos, who make up 25% of the state’s population, still accounted for 46.5% of all arrests for DUI--driving under the influence--in California last year.

Officials attribute the decline in Latino arrests in part to a 5-year-old statewide Spanish-language education program disseminated through Roman Catholic churches, classes in English as a second language, billboards and posters at liquor stores and bars.

“This reduction in DUI arrests demonstrates an increase in awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving among the state’s Hispanic population,” California Highway Patrol Commissioner Maurice Hannigan said in a written statement.

The “Si Toma, No Maneje” (If You Drink, Don’t Drive) program was established in 1989 by the state Office of Traffic Safety. When funds ran out in 1991, the not-for-profit Century Council took it over. The council, formed to combat alcohol abuse, is funded by beer, wine and liquor businesses.

According to statistics compiled by the state Department of Justice, there was a 16% decline in the number of misdemeanor drunk driving arrests statewide from 1991 to 1992, reducing the number to 250,235. From 1992 to 1993, arrests were further reduced, to 224,935.

The number of Latinos among those arrested declined 7.21% in 1992--to 112,956--and 7.26% in 1993, reducing the number to 104,755.

Rose Ann Rasic, director of Hispanic programs for the Century Council, said she was pleased that the program’s success could be quantified.

“The key is providing the information in Spanish, because we have seen that it has been working in the English-speaking segment,” Rasic said.

The program also is included in classes in English as a second language in more than 400 school districts statewide.

Michael Javier, an ESL teacher at Evans Community Adult School in Los Angeles, said incorporating the ramifications of drunk driving into the curriculum on life skills makes sense.

“These are skills like writing checks or going into the supermarket,” Javier said. “We’re teaching the students that the ramifications of getting drunk and driving are getting arrested, having your car impounded and having your license revoked.”

Xavier Flores, executive director of Pueblo y Salud, a social services agency in San Fernando, said a 1990 study he conducted found that there were a large number of foreign-born Latinos who spoke only Spanish among first-time DUI offenders arrested in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division. However, such Latinos made up the smallest percentage of repeat DUI offenders.

“That indicates to us that they are coming into the country not knowing the law, but once they find out the hard way and learn their lesson, they are not doing it again,” Flores said.