David Walker certainly has tools of his own to keep his grip on sobriety.

Like an attentive Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, and supportive family members. And his premonitions of further intoxicated mistakes after his past two DUIs.

"The bottom line with me, certainly because of my actions, is I wouldn't want to hurt somebody else by driving while drinking," said the Coeur d'Alene retiree. "Heaven forbid you hurt a child or somebody playing in the street."

But Walker, 58, has a little outside motivation, too: The bracelet secured around his ankle 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Giving a reminder drone every hour, it monitors his body's alcohol consumption. Its data is printed out and analyzed by the Kootenai County Adult Misdemeanor Probation department every week.

It has grasped Walker's limb for several months, he said, and he's glad it's there.

"I knew if I set my mind to it, I could comply, and this is a good reminder. It's on you all the time," Walker said. "If you choose to fail, it will be right there to report it."

So fewer are choosing to fail.

On top of other efforts by the county AMP, doubling the time requirement for high-risk offenders to don SCRAMx (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor) devices has helped reduce repeat DUI offenses 12 percent in less than a year, said Kevin Creighton, senior probation officer.

The SCRAMx anklets allow AMP to hold offenders accountable all day, Creighton said, while using minimal manpower and letting probationers carry on their lives. The county only pays $8.25 a day for each anklet, he added, compared to the $72 a day to house an offender at the county jail.

"We use it as an intermediary for people who would otherwise be placed in jail," Creighton said, adding that 30 to 50 probationers are usually wearing the anklets. "It's a savings to the public."

Time for Change

It was in 2009 the county started using the transdermal anklets, Creighton said, which monitor alcohol levels in insensible perspiration, and even detect if the wearer is trying to manipulate the device.

But over the past several months, the department has doubled the length of time high-risk offenders wear the anklets, from a maximum 120 days to about 250.

"We've just found that with chronic alcoholic offenders, the short term we were using them for wasn't giving us the long-term stability," Creighton explained.

Program compliance, gauged by reduction of repeat arrests and relapse, is now at 88 percent, Creighton said, up from 76 percent a year ago.

He attributes that to the longer SCRAMx requirement.

"Once we took them to the longer term, we were getting to longer sobriety, less violations," Creighton said.

The Sheriff's Department benefits from AMP's progress, too, said Maj. Ben Wolfinger.

"We start reducing drunk drivers, we start reducing drunk driving accidents and start saving lives, reducing injuries and property damage," Wolfinger said. "It's all the positive steps you can hope for."

The extended SCRAMx use is part of the county's extensive makeover of the AMP department, said Commissioner Jai Nelson.

Over the past nine months, AMP has been reduced and relocated from the Sheriff's Department office to the county administration campus, Nelson said.

The county is also rewriting the department's procedure manual, and the commissioners are creating a new sliding fee scale for the SCRAMx anklets, which state law will require offenders to help pay for starting this July.

The Sheriff's Department is also now collaborating with AMP officers for ongoing training, instead of the latter training independently.

"It's absolutely more cost efficient to train on a collaborative level and share resources," Nelson said, adding these are the first changes the department has seen in several years.

Nelson, now director of the six-officer AMP department, had also asked Creighton to analyze which probationers needed the most targeting.

"Where should we put our resources where we get the most benefit?" she said.

One group stood out with the highest recidivism.

"That's our DUI offenders," Nelson said.

The Right Direction

The key to reducing alcohol-related crime is weaning offenders off dependency, Creighton said.

The anklet helps motivate that, he said. If the SCRAMx device indicates that wearers are indulging, the department intervenes, sometimes incarcerating them for a short period.

Other AMP efforts also help, like probation officers meeting with clients twice a week.

"With the SCRAMx and supervised probation, it shows the clients that we have the same level of accountability with them as they do with us," Creighton said.

Most individuals on supervised probation are prohibited from drinking, he added, regardless of their crimes.

As evidenced by stats so far, Creighton said, the longer the anklet is on, the more the appeals of sobriety seem to sink in.

"Once the offender sees the benefit of staying sober, that's when the real payoffs come in," he said. "If we can prevent one from doing it, it's worth it."

That's been the case with Walker.

He had been assigned an anklet in 2009, and admits that sobriety didn't quite take afterward.

This time around, he said, the device has been on longer than he expected. He is surprised by how much he has accomplished in the long dry spell, he said.

"If you're sober and you feel good, you look around you and you realize that things aren't that bad, and other people need help, and because you're sober you can help them," Walker said. "It's been a really good thing for me."

Judges decide if individuals require supervisory probation, usually because of repeat offenses or failure with unsupervised probation.

The anklet might be one of several conditions a judge can order for offenders, as well as attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or joining a treatment program.

In 2011, Kootenai County tallied 1,120 DUIs, Creighton said.

Currently, there are 800 on county supervised probation, he added, 450 of those DUI related.

To date, the county has monitored 160 repeat drunk drivers with the anklets.

Nelson expects the county AMP to become a model for the state, she said.

"We're headed in the right direction," she said.