Raleigh police unit to focus on drivers who cause outsize share of traffic deaths
.JPG "Raleigh police officers maintain a presence at around 1 a.m. in the Glenwood South district on July 21, 2023. A new unit in the department will focus on impaired drivers.")
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Raleigh creates a three-officer DWI unit funded by a $553,707 federal grant.
- Impaired drivers caused 2% of crashes in Raleigh, but 29% of traffic deaths.
- Department will run patrols and training under the state safety program.
Only about 2% of automobile crashes in Raleigh last year involved drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol. But those crashes killed 11 people, nearly 29% of all traffic deaths in the city, according to data compiled by the Division of Motor Vehicles.
That’s one reason the Raleigh Police Department is once again creating a special unit devoted to impaired driving.
The city received a $553,707 federal grant through the state to establish the unit. It will have three officers to conduct special patrols and train others in the department on how to detect and test for impaired driving and prepare for court.
The new Raleigh DWI Unit is one of several like it across the state supported by the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, using $20.4 million from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Paying special attention to impaired driving makes a difference, said Mark Ezzell, director of the state program.
“What this means is that the Raleigh Police Department will have officers devoted to DWI detection who are specially trained in how to detect impaired drivers of all kinds,” Ezzell said in an interview. “And also dedicated, with laser focus, on getting those drivers off the road.”
Raleigh police received a similar federal grant to create a DWI unit in 2013. In the first 11 months after that unit was formed, DWI arrests in the city rose 60%, while fatalities related to impaired driving dropped from 27 the previous year to 10.
“When DWI arrests go up, DWI fatalities go down,” Lt. Tim Tomczak, the unit’s supervisor, said at the time. “That’s music to my ears.”
That first grant expired after five years, and the department reassigned the officers in the DWI unit.
Part of the new Raleigh grant will be used to remind residents in Raleigh and surrounding Wake County of the costs of impaired driving, not only in lives but in fines and freedom. People charged with impaired driving can end up in jail, lose their driver’s license and face an average of $10,000 in fines, towing fees and other expenses, said Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce.
“The alcohol-related crashes are painful for everyone involved, and they can also be extremely expensive for drivers breaking the law,” Boyce said in a written statement. “The work of the DWI unit is centered on stopping the kinds of tragic and entirely preventable incidents that change families’ lives forever.”
The Raleigh grant was announced on the first day of the state’s holiday “Booze It & Lose It” campaign. From now until Jan. 4, law enforcement agencies statewide will step up patrols and sobriety checkpoints to try to catch impaired drivers and get them off the road.
Of the 1,732 people killed in crashes last year in North Carolina, 361 or nearly 21% died in collisions where alcohol was a factor, according to the DMV. Alcohol-related fatalities have declined since they spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, peaking at 448 statewide in 2022.
This story was originally published December 17, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
