Garland Police Dept News Release:

Holiday DWI Enforcement Results

Garland Police increased their DWI patrols for the IDM (Impaired Driver Mobilization) project during the Christmas and New Year Holidays. The added patrols started December 19 and ran through January 4, resulting in 18 Driving While Intoxicated arrests and two Driving Under the Influence by Minor arrests.
 
The increased patrols were funded through a TxDOT grant program that targets DWI along with Driving Under the Influence by Minors.
 
For 2008, Garland Police recorded 496 DWI arrests and 56 arrests for DUI by a minor.

 
The results this year were a little higher than last year when 13 such arrests were made.
 
These year-end figures above are very close to the totals for 2004 and 2005, and well below 2006. I don't have the final figure for 2007.
 
I asked Chief Mitch Bates about a year ago if the annual number of DWI arrests in Garland has changed much since the 2005 start of beer and wine sales in the city. I was told that the number varies by year depending on the emphasis and amount of resources expended to identify those driving under the influence. The department felt then that there was no way to accurately compare the results from year to year because of the different levels of enforcement effort, but that they did not have a sense that local sales were contributing to a higher number of DWI's. The 2008 results mentioned in the press release appear to support that assumption but there are too many variables to say definitively. It does seem apparent that if there is an increase that we haven't been able to measure it and it is minimal.