POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County will pump $215,600 in STOP-DWI funds back into nine local law enforcement agencies to provide additional dedicated police patrols and sobriety checkpoints in the county’s efforts to reduce the amount of alcohol-related crashes.

The STOP-DWI funding has produced “measurable and impressive outcomes,” said County Executive William Steinhaus. Impaired driving arrests have gone up 26 percent over the past five years as a result of the county’s program, he said. In 2007, there were 1,863 impaired driving arrests countywide, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year and the county attributes that to the STOP-DWI funding.

The new money will allow for dedicated patrols in addition to regular police coverage. Agencies to split the money are police departments in the towns of East Fishkill, Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, and Hyde Park, the cities of Beacon and Poughkeepsie, the villages of Fishkill and Wappingers Falls and the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office.

The STOP-DWI program is totally funded from fines assessed to impaired driving convictions in Dutchess County.