New Year’s Eve perks and patrols designed to encourage sober drivers

New Year’s Eve really should not come as a surprise, but for the unprepared who plan to celebrate outside of their home for the evening, consider yourself warned.

Whether you are driving to a friend’s place for dinner, barhopping by car in Santa Rosa or Petaluma, or turning back for home after toasting the end of 2014, know this: A corps of keen-eyed cops are ready to pull you over if you’re not sober.

Almost every law enforcement agency in Sonoma County is boosting the number of officers on patrol. Funded by state grants aimed at curbing intoxicated driving, extra officers are being paid overtime to get drunken and drugged drivers off the streets.

“Don’t wait until you’ve been drinking to designate a driver or formulate a way to get home,” Santa Rosa Police Traffic Sgt. Brad Conners said.

Alcohol is a factor in about a third of all vehicle crashes, according to statewide numbers. DUI arrests and incidents go up each year on holidays, including New Year’s Eve.

Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Rohnert Park and other agencies are boosting the number of officers on the street Wednesday night and into the wee hours of New Year’s Day. Ten extra CHP officers will be driving around looking for problem drivers, including a special patrol officer contracted by River Rock Casino.

Other business proprietors are participating in the effort to make sure people get home safely. Jack and Tony’s Restaurant and Whisky Bar in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square is among the more than 270 bars and restaurants across the state advertising free nonalcoholic drinks for designated drivers through a smartphone application run by the state Office of Traffic Safety.

Called DDVIP, the app is designed to promote perks for sober drivers and help people find rides through taxi services, such as traditional cab companies and new private car services like Uber and Lyft.

After Jack and Tony’s chef and owner Jeff Mitchell serves the last of the three-course New Year’s Eve special in the dining room, the cozy bar will fill with mostly regulars who will watch the ball drop and toast to 2015 together.

For designated drivers, Mitchell crafted a refreshing and spicy nonalcoholic ginger beer with a lime twist, served in a copper mug like a Moscow mule but without the vodka.

“We’re going to continue offering this all year,” Mitchell said. “It’s simple for us. It encourages people to bring a driver. We get the sales from the group and keep them all safe.”

Office of Traffic Safety spokesman Chris Cochran said more than 9,000 people have downloaded the sober driver app, which was released about three weeks ago.

Cochran said the app has been popular among the agency’s target demographic: ages 21 to 34.

“They’re used to the concept of designated driver. They don’t always do it - sometimes they think the designated driver is the least drunk one,” Cochran said. “But they understand the concept.”

Cochran said that there has been a sea change in public perceptions of drunken driving over the past 15 years.

“Everybody now understands it’s illegal. Most everybody understands it’s socially unacceptable, and most people understand law enforcement won’t be giving anyone a break anymore,” he said.

About half of the agency’s $80 million budget goes toward funding alcohol-related programs, including grants that pay for overtime at local police departments for DUI checkpoints and what’s called saturation patrols during holidays, when people often imbibe more.

Two other North Bay restaurants are listed on the sober driver app: La Casa Restaurant and Bar near the Sonoma Plaza and Taverna Sofia in Healdsburg.

La Casa also is offering two free nonalcoholic beverages for designated drivers signed up with the app.

“Anything, anything they want,” owner Marisela Rodriguez said.

Taverna Sofia lists one free authentic Greek herbal tea, called Tu Vunu, for designated drivers, although the restaurant doesn’t appear to be open on New Year’s Eve.

The AAA again is offering to tow vehicles for free and take home people unable to drive, as long as the ride is 10 miles or less.

Conners, with the Santa Rosa police, said that people who find themselves unable to drive also can simply leave the car wherever it is and call a taxi.

“You can leave a car most places in downtown Santa Rosa,” Conners said. “We’d always rather a person park their car than put their lives or another person’s life at risk.”

Last year on New Year’s Eve, Santa Rosa-area CHP officers arrested 14 people on suspicion of DUI, about three times their daily average. A year earlier, CHP officers arrested 19 drivers on suspicion of DUI.

“We would hope that (decline) is in response to community outreach, public education, the message getting out there,” CHP spokesman Jon Sloat said. “It’s not for a lack of searching for drunk drivers on our end.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.