Marin DA Awarded $465 State DUI Grant

MARIN COUNTY, CA — The Marin County District Attorney's Office has been awarded a $465,000 grant to prosecute impaired drivers.

The California Office of Traffic Safety grant will fund a specialized two-person prosecution team that handles Marin alcohol and drug impaired driving cases, county officials said.

“Marin County is safer thanks to the hard work and experience of our Vertical DUI Prosecution Team (VDPT)," District Attorney Lori E. Frugoli said in a statement.

"Our VDPT would not be possible without the generous funding by the Office of Traffic Safety, which provides the necessary financial means to successfully prosecute serial DUI drivers and to keep Marin highways and streets safe for all drivers and pedestrians. By renewing our grant funding for the upcoming fiscal year, OTS has allowed us to continue this critically important public safety program.”

The specialized prosecution team will also partner with the statewide Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor Training Program (TSRP) to provide training to other prosecutors and investigators, as well as collaborate with law enforcement agencies on best practices handling and managing driving under the influence cases.

This is the 11th year the Marin County District Attorney's Office has received funding from the OTS for a DUI prosecution program.

Last year, the Marin office filed a total of 982 DUI cases, nearly 100 more than the year prior. That included 44 DUI drug cases and 10 DUI combined alcohol and drug cases.

The grant program runs from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.