"Prosecutor Eric Smith Wins GTSAC Award"
Believing that license sanctions alone
are not enough to keep habitual drunk
drivers off the road, 
the Macomb County
Prosecutor’s Office literally took the
wheel right out of their hands by
enacting a vehicle forfeiture program.
This belief won Prosecutor Eric Smith
the Governor’s Traffic Safety Advisory
Commission (GTSAC) Award, which
was presented to the prosecutor on April
27, 2007. Each year the GTSAC honors
organizations, programs, and
individuals for outstanding contributions
to traffic safety.
The forfeiture program, initially started in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, was kicked off in Macomb County on January 1, 2006. It seizes the vehicles of repeat drunk driving offenders and impounds them for forfeiture fees. Since the program started, over $200,000 has been obtained. Proceeds from these forfeitures are distributed to the following three areas and utilized to further the fight against drunk driving:
- Participating county law enforcement
agencies to fund additional drunk
driving patrols and upgrade their
technology,
- Courtroom training for the
prosecutor’s staff, and
- Contributions to charities consistent with the crime victim’s rights act, such as MADD and DARE.
Prosecutor Smith emphasized that this initiative targets the chronic drunk driver only. “This program takes aim at the habitual drunk driver,” he said. “We’re seeing the same faces over and over again, and we aren’t going to stand for it. With the help of the police, we’re taking the steering wheel away from these repeat offenders. You can’t drive drunk when you don’t have a vehicle.”
From the Prosecuting Attorney Association of Michigan www.paam.com
