People in Maine are buzzing with excitement over a big drop in the number of people caught driving drunk over the last ten years. While some folks are throwing confetti and cheering about what’s behind the decline, others are scratching their heads and wondering. They ask if it’s because more folks know the risks and rules or if sneaky drivers are just slipping through the cracks. No matter how the cookie crumbles, it’s intriguing to dig deeper and find out the scoop on this puzzling trend. Could it be that the efforts to spread the word and crack down on intoxicated drivers deserve a round of applause, or is there another side to the story? Dive in and discover the tale behind the numbers.

The debate is raging in the state as police and public safety advocates try to determine just exactly what is happening and why.

A Portland Press Herald analysis of data from the Maine Administrative Office of the Courts shows that the number of drunken-driving charges brought by Maine police dropped from 8,029 in 2001 to 6,026 in 2011.

During that same period of time Maine has also severely cutback on funding for police operations and police staff, forcing some departments to close entirely. This, in combination with the drop in DUI arrests has many people pointing to the decline as a bad sign; that people are getting away with driving drunk because there simply are not enough police on the streets to catch them. But others, especially those engaged in law enforcement in the state, say the decline is the result of a direct emphasis on finding and punishing those drivers who dare get behind the wheel while under the influence of alcohol.

It is difficult to know just what has caused the near 25 percent decline in the number of drunk driving arrests in the state of Maine. Without omnipotent powers there is no way to know just how many drivers might be under the influence of alcohol and whether or not that number has actually gone down in the past decade or whether they are just being missed.

But it seems likely that now that police are being questioned about the effectiveness of their DUI efforts they will be striving to prove their results are real and not just a fluke and certainly not the result of “out of sight, out of mind.”