MARSHALL — The number of arrests for driving while impaired in Lyon County have soared compared to two years ago, according to a new public data tool launched by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Since the start of 2024, there have been 85 DWI incidents in Lyon County, and in 2023, there were 102 DWIs, the data said.

In comparison, Lyon County had 35 DWI arrests in all of 2022.

The rise in DWI arrests could possibly reflect increasing local enforcement efforts, said Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallen.

“We’ve participated in more enforcement waves,” through statewide efforts to fight impaired driving, Wallen said.

The data on DWI incidents in Lyon County comes from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s new public DWI Dashboard tool. The dashboard, which launched on the BCA’s website earlier this month, lets users search for information on crashes and arrests involving impaired drivers.

“We’re bringing the data together in a way that we hope will help both law enforcement and the public gain a better understanding of the impact of impaired driving on Minnesota communities,” BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said in a news release. “This also brings important data to prevention efforts.”

An interactive map on the DWI Dashboard can display the locations of DWI-related crashes and arrests across the state, or at the level of a county or city. The dashboard also includes some data about the incidents and the people arrested. While the site doesn’t give names of offenders, visitors can see the age, gender and alcohol concentrations of people arrested for DWI in Minnesota.

Users can filter their search results by everything from the age of impaired drivers, to the date or time of day when DWI incidents happened.

This month alone, there were 1,896 DWI arrests and 207 crashes involving impaired drivers across Minnesota, dashboard data said. Out of that statewide total, 11 DWIs and two crashes were reported in Lyon County, mainly within the city of Marshall.

Since the start of 2024, there have been 85 DWI incidents and 12 impairment-related crashes in Lyon County, dashboard data said. There were 102 DWIs and 10 crashes in the county in 2023. In 2022, there were only 35 DWI incidents, but 20 crashes in Lyon County, dashboard data said.

The majority of the reported DWI arrests and crashes reported in Lyon County in recent years happened in Marshall. Of the 85 DWIs reported so far this year, 57 were in Marshall, dashboard data said. But the data also included DWI arrests across the county, by agencies like the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, the Minnesota State Patrol, and the Tracy and Minneota Police Departments.

The BCA created the DWI Dashboard in 2016, but the tool wasn’t available to the public until now. The dashboard tool was originally designed to let law enforcement look for trends that could help them prevent or respond to impaired driving, the BCA said.

“Saving lives on Minnesota roads requires solid data that can inform traffic safety programs and change dangerous driving choices,” said Mike Hanson, director of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Office of Traffic Safety. “There’s no excuse to drive impaired. The DWI Dashboard gives our partners and now the public a valuable resource to make progress in preventing tragedy.”

Wallen and Marshall Public Safety Director Jim Marshall said Wednesday that they weren’t aware of the launch of the DWI Dashboard. However, they said it could be a good tool for spreading awareness about the dangers of impaired driving.

“Our goal is to make (Marshall) a safer community in terms of driving conditions and behaviors,” Marshall said. “This is a good way to keep it in the forefront.”

Marshall and Wallen said there could be different factors affecting the number of DWI incidents in Marshall and Lyon County over the past few years. Wallen said the Sheriff’s Office has taken part in statewide enforcement programs on impaired driving, which could have brought up the number of officer contacts with drivers.

The number of law enforcement contacts with the public was also lower during the COVID pandemic, when people were isolating, Marshall said. Over the past few years, the number of service calls the Marshall Police have responded to has gone back up. Marshall estimated that Marshall Police are now getting over 1,000 service calls per month.

Wallen and Marshall said it was important to remember that the number of DWI incidents reported in the area only reflects the number of impaired drivers arrested by law enforcement.

“I would still guess there are more out there that we are unable to catch,” Wallen said.

“As our numbers go up, that’s concerning for me,” Marshall said. Marshall said he was also interested to see what impact legal marijuana would have on impaired driving incidents in Minnesota.