COUNTYWIDE : County to Increase Drunk-Driver Staff
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Ventura County will hire three more employees to help supervise the growing number of people on probation for drunken driving, the Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday.
A probation officer and two office assistants will be assigned to the county’s east courthouse in Simi Valley.
The annual cost of the three positions, $107,200, will be offset by revenue collected from the offenders, county officials said.
Four years ago, the county set up a program to formally supervise adults on probation for driving under the influence.
Before that, probation had been unsupervised.
Since the program began, about 500 new cases a month have been added, and gradually employees were hired to handle the caseload.
By March, 1989, 10,000 offenders were being supervised.
The drunken driving law was tightened in 1990; a driver is considered legally drunk with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08% rather than 0.10%.
Because of more arrests and convictions, the caseload has increased to 12,000, officials said.
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