D.A.’s office gets grant for DUI cases

The state Office of Traffic Safety awarded the Orange County District Attorney’s Office a $480,000 for the prosecution of driving under the influence cases, according to a news release issued Thursday.

The grant was funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It is the third grant the OCDA has received for DUI detection and prosecution.

The first was a 2005 grant of $691,631 to fund a deputy district attorney and staff to exclusively focus on DUI prosecution. And in 2008, the OCDA created the state’s first Vehicular Homicide Team, which has won 85 vehicular death convictions.

In 2011, a $640,000 grant to support a collaborative effort between agencies such as the Orange County Crime Laboratory and California Highway Patrol to better detect, arrest suspects for and prosecute DUI cases.

This involved special training to, among other things, look for signs of driving under the influence and test blood alcohol content levels at the scene of an incident.

The new grant will be used to enhance that initiative, the release said.

—Jill Cowan

Twitter: @jillcowan