Michigan drunk driving arrests plunge. Impairment remains deadly threat

• Drunk driving arrests in Michigan fell 4% last year and are down 28% since 2014, but related crashes declined more slowly
• Law enforcement officials say fewer arrests reflect staffing shortages, not fewer drunk drivers, as they struggle to hire
• In rural counties like Antrim and Crawford, DUI arrests dropped over 40% in one year as road patrols shrink due to low staffing

Drunk driving arrests in Michigan continue to fall, dropping 4% last year and 28% since 2014, according to new state police data released this month. 

Across Michigan, there were 25,318 arrests for drunk driving in 2024, down 1,090 from the 26,408 in 2023. In 2014 there were almost 10,000 more DUI arrests — 35,060.

But the long-running decline does not reflect an equal decline in the number of drunk drivers, according to officials. Instead, they say there are fewer police officers who are too busy handling an increasing workload.

“I don’t think it’s (impaired driving) diminished,” said George Lasater, undersheriff for Antrim County in northern Michigan. “I just think it’s fewer of us looking for them.”

Drunk-driving arrests have fallen steadily for over a decade. The number of alcohol-related crashes has fallen too, but at a slower rate, dropping 9% since 2014. 

And there have been more deadly crashes: There were 279 fatal alcohol- or drug-involved crashes in 2024, up slightly from 275 in 2023 and up 24% from 225 in 2014.

“The reality is, it remains an issue,” said Stephanie Hurst, a manager of victim services for the Michigan chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Driving impaired includes alcohol or drugs, including marijuana, which Michigan voters chose to legalize in 2018.  

Marijuana testing is tricky because the intoxicating ingredient — THC — stays in the bloodstream long after usage.

Michigan lawmakers are currently considering a bill that would allow police to use the results of roadside saliva tests as probable cause to arrest motorists and take them in for more testing to confirm their intoxication.

Police are short-staffed

Antrim County officers arrested 55 people for driving under the influence (DUI) or related offenses in 2024, down 41% from the 94 in 2023 and down 56% from the 126 in 2014. 

Neighboring counties of Kalkaska, Otsego and Crawford reported similar drops.

Like other departments across Michigan, Antrim has struggled to recruit and hire officers. The county currently has 13 road officers and five officers in training. As of a few years ago, they typically had about 21 officers, Lasater said.

The funding is there to hire more officers, but not a ready supply of applicants, according to Lasater.  “We’re so short-staffed — as are most places around us,” he said.

Lasater, who worked in Charlevoix County for 30 years before joining the Antrim force, said it was common to get 100 applicants for job openings years ago. Now it’s one or two, he said.

Related:

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• Drunk driving penalties in Michigan vary depending on where you live

That has put departments in competition with each other,  fighting over a dwindling pool of applicants. In the month of June alone, nearly four dozen departments across the state were looking to hire officers, from Escanaba to Wyandotte.

In Crawford County, just southwest of Antrim, the sheriff’s department has 10 road deputies to patrol 563 square miles, with three authorized positions unfilled, Undersheriff Shawn Schnoor said. In 2024, 74 motorists were arrested for DUIs in Crawford County, down 41% from the 125 arrested in 2023.

Officers are now handling more calls, including more related to mental health issues, Schnoor said. That’s keeping deputies off the roads, where in years past they would have been able to look for drunk drivers.

There are now just under 18,900 officers in the state, about 300 short of positions that exist but sit unfilled, said Sgt. James Janes of the Michigan State Police, who coordinates the department’s drug recognition program.

In 2001, there were nearly 22,500 officers in the state, he said.

Janes said demands on departments have limited how many are able to send officers to impaired-driving training sessions offered by the state, training that would help officers learn how to spot and arrest problem drivers.

The training lasts two days, Janes said, and departments find it “tough to give someone two days off the road.” While he used to get 35 officers per training session, he said he now gets 20.

Preventable deaths

MADD’s Hurst said more people are aware of the dangers of impaired driving and the expansion of taxi services like Uber and Lyft have helped lower the overall rates of impaired driving.

But there are still many people who drive after drinking or doing drugs, with tragic results. And places like Crawford County, Schnoor said, do not have ride-sharing services.

“Any injury or death as a result of drunk driving or impaired driving is devastating,” Hurst said. “It didn’t need to happen. It’s 100% preventable.”

In 2021, Congress, as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, ordered the passage of new rules, by 2027, that would force automakers to develop passive in-car technology to prevent drunk driving. 

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, sponsored that legislation after a drunk driver crash killed five members of a Michigan family on I-75 in Kentucky. The family was returning from a trip to Florida.

The technology could involve cameras monitoring eye movement, Hurst said.