Western Australia police trial $20 vouchers for sober drivers in Manjimup

Police patrolling the streets of a small town in southern Western Australia are taking a novel approach to reward good drivers, offering a $20 reward to those blowing zero when breath tested.

Officers in Manjimup, 290 kilometres south of Perth, are handing out 100 of the $20 vouchers during traffic stops throughout September to support a local road safety initiative.

Officer-in-charge Sergeant Tyler Winter said the September timeframe was a deliberate call, with football finals and the looming school holidays seeing more people on the road.

"If they are doing the right thing, if they are not breaking any laws, and they blow zero, then we may give them one of the $20 vouchers."

He said the unique inversion of the no-tolerance approach to drink driving had emerged from the local road safety committee.

"[They] thought that maybe if we have a positive interaction and reinforce when people do the right thing, then maybe the message will get through," Sergeant Winter said.

Criminologist unconvinced

Criminologist Matthew Morgan, from the Australian Catholic University, agreed it was a novel approach, and said he would be interested to see the results.

But he said the vouchers would probably do more to build rapport between police and the community than reduce drink driving.

"It's definitely a PR exercise on behalf of police. I definitely think it's a good way of building interest with the community," Dr Morgan said.

However, Dr Morgan said research did indicate drivers tended to respond well to immediate feedback.

He pointed to roadside electronic speed checks, which displayed a smiling or frowning face in response to a driver's adherence to the speed limit, as a small-scale example.

"That instant feedback stimulates our reward systems in the brain, and it actually has been proven to limit speeding on our roads," he said.

"Whether you go to the football and think I'm not going to speed because I might get $20, I don't know."

Community funding for new approach

The vouchers, worth $2,000, were funded through Drug and Alcohol support service Holyoake, which sits on the local road safety committee.

Team leader Jo Woodruff said the organisation would ask police to collect data to help them assess how effective the program had been.

"This effectively is our first run, so it is going to be our baseline, with the hope that we would do this in subsequent years and see some improvements," she said.

A WA police spokesperson said it supported a variety of local Blow Zero initiatives around the state, with Moora police in the Wheatbelt previously trying a similar voucher program.

"They are not WA police state-wide enforcement programs and are not typically subject to formal performance measures or statewide statistical reporting," the spokesperson said.

With next weekend's AFL Grand Final falling on the King's Birthday long weekend in WA, double demerits will be in force across the state.