Haywood to fight DWIs with innovative anti-drinking bracelets

Oct. 31—Haywood County will soon be part of a pilot program to deploy alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelets on high-risk DWI offenders while they're awaiting trial.

The bracelets, which detect minute levels of alcohol emitted from the skin, will presumably serve as a deterrent for those struggling with alcoholism. The bracelets would be used on offenders deemed likely to drink-and-drive again.

"We are targeting the most dangerous people. Whoever is wearing the bracelet either has to stay sober or go to jail," said Ellen Pitt, head of the Western Region DWI Task Force.

Pitt's advocacy landed a grant to fund the pilot program in Haywood County, along with the rest of the seven-county westernmost judicial district. Law enforcement officers say the technology offered by the bracelets is a welcome tool.

"It will assist in keeping the community from being revictimized from habitual or repeat DWI offenders," said Waynesville Assistant Police Chief Brandon Gilmore.

An alarming number of people rack up multiple DWIs while awaiting trial. Out of 13 DWI arrests during a single week in Haywood and Jackson counties recently, six had a pending DWI charge still outstanding.

"It's not at all unusual," Pitt said. "Their cases may not go to court for a year or even two years, and in the meantime, they aren't going to quit drinking and driving. They've proved that."

The bracelets also provide a stiff incentive — the looming threat of jail time — to get and stay sober.

"It may sound harsh that you won't be allowed to sit and have a beer on your couch at home, but it's a stepping stone," Gilmore said. "Personally, I hope it's a means to get help in their personal life for substance abuse. Otherwise, they know that bracelet is going to go off and they'll be taken to jail. They know the consequences of their actions."

Data collected during the pilot program will show whether the bracelets prevented repeat DWI offenses. A three-county region in the Piedmont with similar demographics has been selected as a control area to compared to the Haywood's seven-county region during the year-long pilot.

"We already know these bracelets save lives, money and manpower, but this will provide hard data to show the effectiveness," Pitt said.

Long-time coming

Pitt has meticulously tracked DWI cases in Haywood County and across WNC for over two decades — sitting through hundreds of days of courts as an advocate for justice. The statistics in her files are sobering.

Even more sobering, however, are the stories of deaths and injuries behind the statistics. One involves the death of a Haywood County woman and mother, Angela Woody, an innocent victim of a DWI in 2012. The driver, Jessica Simons, had three prior DWIs, plus a fresh DWI from just two months before that was still pending in court.

After hitting Woody — her fifth DWI — a judge ordered a bracelet while she awaited trial.

"But it was too late for Angela Woody," said Pitts.

The technology for alcohol monitoring bracelets, which are worn on the ankle and detect alcohol emitted through the skin, has been around since the early 2000s. But adoption has been slow.

Pitt was part of a coalition, including then-Waynesville Police Chief Bill Hollingsed, that lobbied the N.C. General Assembly to pass a bill in 2012 authorizing the bracelet's use by courts and law enforcement.

But it didn't do a lot of good, largely due to the lack of availability.

"We checked the box but it never really got pushed out," Gilmore said. "We had no clue where you would go to get them put them on. They didn't have them at the magistrate's office or jail. There wasn't access to them."

The challenge was two-fold. The only way to have one put on was by a private contractor. The closest one in Sylva, but it only opened last year.

Meanwhile, indigent offenders could get a pass based on lack of financial means. The bracelets cost around $75 to get put on plus a $10 daily fee — a cost that fell to the offender.

As a result, bracelets were rarely ordered by magistrate judges.

"The argument was always 'there's nobody to pay for it,'" Pitt said. "So we've been just limping along."

Pitt decided enough was enough and began to pursue funding sources.

"I decided 'It has got to be done, we can't wait another day,'" Pitt said.

How it will work

The pilot program will provide funding for the bracelets thanks to a grant from the N.C. Governor's Highway Safety Program.

"Now, there's no longer the story of 'we can't do it because they can't pay,'" Pitt said.

Magistrate judges are ultimately the ones who will order a bracelet for an offender, but law enforcement will play a critical role in recommending them.

"The officer has the most information about the circumstance," Gilmore said.

The Waynesville Police Department has adopted guidelines for when officers should request the bracelets.

"We've told them to use their discretion, but wanted to have some type of uniform standard and trigger criteria," Gilmore said.

While driving drunk or high is never OK, there's a different between a first-time offender coming home from a party and someone with an addiction at high risk of doing it again.

An excessively high blood-alcohol level and even the time of day, like being drunk in the morning or early afternoon, would be red flags, Gilmore said. Another trigger for requesting a bracelet is having children in the vehicle.

"It is serious business if you drive drunk with a child in the car," Pitt added.

Even though the program won't officially launch until the beginning of 2023, the awareness its created is already working.

Twice in one month, two DWI offenders have been outfitted with bracelets in Haywood.

One was a woman who got in two alcohol-related wrecks last month in a span of 30-minutes — including a hit-and-run in the Tuscola parking lot during afternoon carline.

The incident closely followed a pending DWI charge in Hendersonville, but other red flags that made her a candidate was her blood-alcohol level of 2.5 times the legal limit with an open container in the middle of the afternoon, according to police reports.

Another involved a bracelet request by Waynesville officers for a man who accidentally shot off a rifle in a gun shop in Waynesville when trying to unload it and then fled.

Gilmore commended Pitt for moving the needle on the issue.

"Ellen has been a huge advocate in getting this thing facilitated. She has worked behind-the-scenes to make it happen and become more of a norm," Gilmore said.

Pitt said there's a reason Haywood's seven-county judicial district was chosen for the pilot. The law enforcement and justice community has a reputation for working together, problem solving and mobilizing for a cause.

"We have a working group that gets stuff done. They knew we could get the boots-on-the-ground to go out and get the job done," Pitt said.