| Summary: |
The Department of Transportation (DOT) is preparing for reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which authorizes the Federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit. Since the last reauthorization in 1998, there has been a shift in thinking from a focus primarily on construction to a broad approach to "traffic management." Included in this shift is recognition that enforcement requires coordination with ancillary agencies such as law enforcement, prosecutors, and the courts. This opens up the strong possibility of funding for training, information system development, and technical assistance for criminal justice agencies, including the courts. It also raises the possibility of mandates, as highway funds have been a major vehicle for enforcing state compliance with federal requirements.
DOT reauthorization has been forecast as one of the few domestic issues to be addressed successfully in the 108th Congress. A recent meeting sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) provided some clues to current thinking. The purpose of the conference was to bring together practitioners from the criminal justice field to find ways to improve the processing of DUI cases, with special emphasis on the habitual offender. Attendees included representatives from law enforcement, prosecutors, defense counsel, courts (12 attendees from NACM, COSCA, AJA, NCSC and others); and jails. The conference ended with a "solutions" session that included the following
recommendations of direct relevance to state courts:
- The drug court model (problem solving) will be applied to DUI cases.
- Education of judges, administrative commissioners, and court administrators on the law will be emphasized.
- A major focus should be on case processing improvements among criminal justice components.
- DOT should fund improvements in all traffic courts, even if they do not establish a drug court.
- Finally, a theme running through the entire conference was the need for a system approach to impaired driving cases.
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