The City Council took an important step in bolstering public safety, holding DUI offenders responsible for their actions, making police operations more efficient and saving taxpayers over $100,000 dollars annually, when they voted yesterday to hire a private law firm to handle all DUI arrests in the City of Aurora.In his quest to cut costs and make better use of city resources while keeping public safety Aurora’s number one priority, Mayor Richard Irvin challenged the police department to look for ways to be more efficient and cut costs. We began exploring the idea of a local DUI prosecutor several years ago and decided to revisit the idea. After talking with several agencies, we chose Attorney Kim DiGiovanni based on her stellar reputation and experience. In fact, both Elgin and St. Charles have been using her for years as their local DUI prosecutor and have been reaping tangible benefits. Currently, with Aurora being situated in four different counties, officers are required to travel to St. Charles (Kane County), Wheaton (DuPage County), Yorkville (Kendall County), and Joliet (Will County) in order to testify in court on their DUI cases. Frequently the cases, which are assigned to different State’s Attorneys, get continued for a variety of reasons. (It’s not unusual for a single case to be continued up to four times). By utilizing a private law firm, DUI prosecutions are streamlined and overtime costs saved because, instead of cases being heard in the county in which they occurred, they all take place on set court dates, in one city, in one courtroom, with one prosecutor and by one judge. (As examples, both Elgin and St. Charles are located in more than one county but all of their local DUI’s are heard in St. Charles as will Aurora’s.) Less officers waiting in court means more officers on the street addressing crime and quality of life issues. Additionally, the City of Aurora will receive a portion of each fine allocated on those convicted. The firm will also provide DUI training several times per year for our department. This is vitally important because of the complexity of DUI arrests including the time they take, the paperwork involved and the intricacies of testifying in court. The training will concentrate on best practices for both arrests and court issues which will increase officers’ confidence in the process. When Elgin went to local DUI enforcement, for example, the increased officer training was credited for their DUI arrests skyrocketing. In fact, the agency led the state with an almost 35% increase in DUI arrests from 2015 to 2016. When arrests go up, the natural consequence is less accidents involving drunk drivers. It’s not often public safety can be strengthened, processes streamlined and taxpayer money being saved simultaneously. The local prosecution of DUI’s does all three and more. The Aurora Police Department is looking forward to this change in our unwavering commitment to keep Aurora a safe and vibrant city.