Mapping project may link alcohol, social problems

Some officials at the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Council of Jefferson County Inc. think they may have found a new way to gather information relating alcohol availability to health, criminal and social problems.

The agency, at 167 Polk St., Suite 320, is trying to gather community agencies and organizations to get them on board with using geographic information system mapping to examine the density of alcohol outlets in the north country and compare that data with various social, criminal and health-related trends.

The idea is based on a graduate project of Robert S. Pezzolesi, founder of Alcohol Advertising Reform Initiative, a Syracuse nonprofit organization dedicated to the environmental prevention of alcohol problems.

His work, "The Syracuse Alcohol Environment Project: Alcohol Availability and the Public Health in Syracuse, New York," showed that interventions that modify the alcohol environment offer the greatest chance of reducing social, criminal and health-related problems.

Anita K. Seefried-Brown, Alcohol and Substance Abuse Council program director, said that after agency workers attend Mr. Pezzolesi's public workshop from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday at the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services Teachers Center, Large Conference Room, 20104 Route 3, they'll have a better understanding of what to do with the data.

"We'd know where to set the hook. That's what's impressive about this," Ms. Seefried-Brown said. "What impresses me the most is we can then do targeted and focused interventions. The GIS mapping system will find where those hot spots are."

She said the "targeted and focused interventions" could be increased police patrols where there are both a high density of alcohol outlets and high incidences of alcohol-related problems.

"What specifically those interventions will look like we don't know, because we haven't done the GIS mapping yet," Ms. Seefried-Brown said.

The State Liquor Authority provides information on the number of alcohol outlets in any given area. That information is compared with health data such as the number of sexually transmitted diseases around the alcohol outlets, and crime data such as how many domestic disputes were committed around alcohol outlets.

Ms. Seefried-Brown said just the facts are presented, and agencies such as the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Council draw their own conclusions.

The agency does not yet have the GIS mapping software. What the agency uses now to track where alcohol outlets are is a large printed map of Watertown, with thumbtacks that represent bars and stores are that sell alcohol.

Responses to Mechia Williams, the council's prevention and resource specialist, are requested as soon as possible by e-mailing her at mwilliams@jcasac.com.

"I think anyone who has an interest in how this technology could benefit them and their agency should attend," Ms. Williams said.