01-05-2025
Federal grants aid local law enforcement to battle underage drinking
Apr. 30—MITCHELL — Local law enforcement officers are on task to reduce underage drinking and vehicular fatalities in Davison County.
The Mitchell Police Department and the Davison County Sheriff's Department were granted approval by their governing bodies to seek federal grants for paying officers and deputies overtime while conducting alcohol compliance checks to reduce underage drinking and performing traffic stops in highly-frequented roadways. The hop is to reduce fatalities within Mitchell and Davison County.
Davison County Sheriff Chief Deputy Tim Reitzel is requesting $48,637 in funding, $13,000 of which will be for overtime reimbursement and $20,900 for equipment. The sheriff's department is seeking $7,000 for speed, seat belt and DWI enforcement.
Mitchell Chief of Police Dean Knippling is requesting $9,629 in funding for alcohol compliance checks, and $17,772 for speed and seat belt enforcement.
A key component of the law enforcement grants is battling underage drinking in Davison County, though Knippling explained alcohol consumption by minors hasn't necessarily increased.
Numbers can be skewed, Knippling warned. One house party can have 30 or 40 kids who receive citations for underage drinking.
"It's just whether or not we happen to catch them at the time," Knippling said. "If you catch two or three parties, your numbers are going to go up drastically."
The department deals with a small percentage of Mitchell juveniles on a regular basis, according to Knippling.
The Davison County Sheriff's Office and the Mitchell Police Department are part of the South-Central Alcohol Task Force, with the goal of combating the purchase of alcohol by underage individuals in their jurisdictions.
In 2023, there were 168 arrests involving underage consumption of alcohol in Davison County. In 2024, there were 115. As of March 31 this year, there were 37 arrests.
The Mitchell Police Department hires a confidential informant at $30 per hour to conduct alcohol compliance checks, a process to verify if retail clerks check for photo identification and age before allowing alcohol to be purchased. Nine compliance checks, estimated at 3.5 hours of work each, comes out to $945 in contractual labor.
Two Mitchell police officers conduct the compliant checks, which must be conducted on an overtime basis, according to grant guidelines. Each compliance check takes an estimated four hours of work for each officer at a rate of $68 per hour for a total of $5,451.
The confidential informant also receives a preliminary breath test before and after the alcohol compliance checks to verify that they have not consumed alcohol. The breath test machine cost $399. The confidential informant wears an audio recorder, priced at $310 and requires 9-volt batteries, which allows for officers to hear the alcohol transaction as it happens.
Additionally, as stated in the Mitchell Police Department's grant application, an estimated five compliance checks, as part of the South Dakota South/Central Alcohol Task Force, are performed outside of city limits in Davison, Aurora and Minor counties by sheriff's deputies at an estimated cost of $510 for car rentals and $150 for gas. Overtime rates for the deputies are at a rate of $37 per hour for a total cost of $555.
The total compliance check project cost is $9,629.
In 2024, Miner and Aurora counties were at 100% compliance. In 2023 and 2024, Davison County alcohol compliance checks had a 85% success rate at local retailers.
In January,
four Mitchell businesses failed alcohol compliance checks.
In March,
one business failed.
Clerks who fail to verify age are cited for selling alcohol to the underage individual. The subsequent police report is forwarded to the State Attorney's Office for prosecution of the clerk and to the South Dakota Department of Revenue for action against the alcohol license holder.
The grants require that efforts be taken to identify high-crash sites and place law enforcement presence there to reduce the amount of fatalities from crashes in those locations.
"You don't go out to a rural area that sees one car in an hour," Reitzel said.
In 2023, alcohol-involved crashes made up 5.8 percent of total crashes, but 26.6% of all fatal crashes in South Dakota, according to the Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Summary.
"Obviously, on the speed grant, we're looking for people speeding and not wearing seat belts. That's a focus. And on impaired driving, we're looking for impaired-driving, alcohol and drug violations," Reitzel said.
The Mitchell Police Department will focus on school zones during the school year and on parks during the summer months, according to Knippling. The department will work to reduce work zone fatalities as well by having a police presence to encourage drivers to slow down.
The Mitchell Police Department has not been as active with overtime due to past officers being unwilling to work overtime, according to Knippling.
The 2026 grants are federally-funded by the United States Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and administered by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety's Highway Safety office. Each grant requires a 20% soft match from the local government.
A 2025 grant of nearly $16,000 enabled the purchase and installation of cameras in four Sheriff's Department patrol cars, according to Reitzel. The 2026 grant request of $20,900 will complete the cameras in the county's five other patrol cars. The sheriff's department also applied for a homeland security grant.
Previously, county commissioners approved the annual purchase of cloud storage to keep track of footage from patrol car cameras.
A previous $5,200 grant enabled a sheriff deputy to go to training at a California law enforcement school. The 2026 grant is requesting funds to send a sheriff's deputy to a training in Baltimore for $3,000. The Mitchell Police Department is requesting to add four radar units for speed enforcement at $3,193 each for a total of $12,772.
