5 Drunk Driving Prevention Tips for School Resource Officers

Deliver effective drunk driving prevention education to your students with these tips.

As a school resource officer, you have the unique opportunity to provide drunk driving prevention tips and education to students. Whether you’re working with elementary, middle, or high school-aged students, your combination of law enforcement and educational experience makes you a great candidate for sharing the dangers of drunk driving. 

But there’s always room for improvement to make your prevention education programs more effective! Check out these drunk driving prevention tips for school resource officers to help make the lessons you teach stick with students:

1. Draw on your law enforcement experience
2. Avoid scare tactics
3. Utilize appropriate hands-on tools
4. Tap into the issues your school or community face
5. Engage with students

Keep reading to learn more about these drunk driving prevention tips!

Draw on your law enforcement experience

Having law enforcement experience can help you better understand and communicate the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol and the risks it creates for students, their peers, their families, and their community. If you have responded to car crashes or other emergencies caused by drunk driving in your career, you can draw on those experiences to inform your lessons and share real-world consequences of drunk driving that will resonate with students. 

Avoid scare tactics

Another one of our critical drunk driving prevention tips is avoiding the use of scare tactics. While the real-world lessons you’ve learned through your law enforcement career can be a compelling educational tool, you’ll want to avoid allowing them to become too intense or shocking. Research has shown that scare tactics are ineffective at preventing substance abuse and should be avoided whenever possible. 

Utilize appropriate hands-on tools

Engaging, hands-on tools like those in the Fatal Vision® line offer a great way to connect with students and get them more involved in your lessons. One of the best ways to introduce these tools to your program is with a kit that combines the Fatal Vision® alcohol goggles with a variety of activities like the DIES® mats to present students with new experiences and address the effects of alcohol impairment. You can even take this a step further with the Roadster Ultimate Package, which includes a driving simulator and a variety of activities to demonstrate the risks of alcohol-impaired driving in a safe and fun environment.

Once you’ve worked with our team to select the products that make the most sense for your school, students, and community issues, another vital drunk driving prevention tip to keep in mind is to thoroughly review the Fatal Vision® tools’ instructions prior to using them. This step will help build confidence in your delivery and increase student engagement.

Tap into the issues your school or community face

There’s no one-size-fits-all drunk driving prevention program that will work for every school and community. As a school resource officer, one way to make sure your educational program is effective and impactful is by directly addressing the issues that your community is facing. Talk with other law enforcement professionals, parents, and educators to identify the lessons and issues you’ll want to address through your curriculum. 

You can also use your educational program to address specific initiatives for events that can further help connect the material you’re teaching with students’ lives and communities. For example, you can create lessons around National Impaired Driving Month or National Youth Traffic Safety Month, or incorporate specific lessons during a time of year when driving when impaired may become more relevant, such as prom season.

Engage with students

At the end of the day, one of the most important drunk driving prevention tips we can offer is to remember who your lessons are all about: the students. Ask questions to help engage with your students and use that feedback to guide your program. Hands-on tools like Fatal Vision® products are another way to engage with students in a fun and controlled way and break down any barriers that might exist between law enforcement professionals and the schools and communities they serve.

If you’re a school resource officer looking to take your drunk driving prevention education program to the next level, Innocorp can help! Browse the full lineup of Fatal Vision® products on our website, or contact our team with any questions you may have.