Butte is Booting Drunk Drivers Driving on Suspended or Revoked Licenses

Butte’s DUI task force met this week to discuss new ideas for DUI prevention in the county. DUI preventions present in Butte include the 24/7 Sober Program, Mariah’s Challenge, and a Butte DUI Court which started last October.

The task force would like to do more to prevent drunk drivers from re-offending, and today are discussing booting the cars of drivers who have a suspended license for DUI, and are caught driving again. If a person driving on a suspended or revoked license is found to be driving again, the county attorney of Butte will recommend to the judge that a boot be placed on the driver’s vehicle. The judge can make a decision on whether to use the boot as part of the sentence.

Police have booted vehicles of DUI offenders since 2010, but have only booted three cars since due to limited resources and working out the kinks of proper protocol for booting vehicles.

Two cars have been booted since last Friday. All the boots are donated, and 8 of which have been donated by Mariah’s Challenge, a nonprofit that shines awareness on underage drinking and driving.

The boot can be placed on vehicles for 30 days, for a total of $3 a day.