Program Description:
Florida’s Department of Transportation has developed strategic
plans to address impaired driving and motorcycle safety, which
require more involvement from Florida’s judges. To date, law
enforcement personnel and prosecutors have collaborated with the
Florida Department of Transportation and The National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration to implement the strategic plan, yet
Florida’s judges have not yet actively engaged in this process. To
address this, the Florida Judicial Outreach Liaison program was
created to foster collaboration and communication with criminal
justice stakeholders regarding traffic safety matters. The program
is modeled after a similar program in Texas. It was created in the
beginning of 2012 with the following goals in mind:
Improve the knowledge and skills needed for handling DUI cases
Educate the judiciary on The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration and Florida-specific traffic safety programs and
their significance to Florida’s judiciary
Create and maintain a contact network among judiciary and traffic
safety officials
Collaborate with The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s
judicial fellows, regional judicial outreach liaisons,
traffic safety resource prosecutors, law enforcement liaisons and
Florida Department of Transportation contacts
Produce monthly and quarterly activity reports
Source of Funding:
Florida Department of Transportation
Factors to Consider When Replicating the Program:
Request implementation of a state judiciary outreach liaison
program in your state (approach the appropriate branch of state
government)
Obtain grant funding
Build a judiciary outreach liaison contract that meets the rules
and ethics of judicial conduct
Establish a selection process for judicial outreach liaisons