Nearly 41% of all arrests by Marblehead Police between 2014 and 2024 were for either drunkenness or driving under the influence, a statistic both the police chief and the Massachusetts program director for the non-profit Mothers Against Drunk Driving noted with concern.
“Alcohol-related crimes are those we investigate regularly,” said Marblehead Police Chief Dennis King. “It’s always concerning.”
King said the department is as “vigilant as we have ever been” in addressing not just alcohol-related suspected crimes but all offenses in Marblehead.
“It is high for sure,” said Mary Kate DePamphilis, MADD’s Massachusetts’ program director, of the number of arrests for drunkenness and driving under the influence in Marblehead between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2024. It was not immediately clear how many of the Marblehead arrests for these two charges involved residents or visitors.
DePamphilis has been with MADD for 14 years, offering victims of alcohol-related car crashes support, advocating for legislative reforms, fundraising and educating the public about how to prevent the devastation caused by impaired driving, she said.
DePamphilis recently contacted the family of a 13-year-old Marblehead girl killed in an alleged drunk driving crash in August to help, she said. A 16-year-old Marblehead student has been charged with motor vehicle homicide in that crash, which occurred just before 3 a.m. on Atlantic Avenue, police and the Essex County District Attorney’s office said. District Attorney Paul F. Tucker and King have not released the male defendant’s name, stating Massachusetts law protects his public identification because he was charged in state juvenile court. The crash remains under investigation by local police, the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and Crime Scene Services. King declined to comment on the August crash.
Savanah Gatchell was the second young person to lose their life in a Marblehead car crash in the past three-and-a-half years. James Galante, 18, died in 2022 after his car veered off the causeway at around 3:00 am on March 18. Authorities have not made public the reason Galante’s car crashed.
DePamphilis said two fatal car crashes involving young people since 2022 in a town of 20,000 residents “is really unfortunate and it does warrant taking notice.”
MADD regularly visits Massachusetts communities affected by crashes like the one resulting in Gatchell’s death, arranging for surviving victims to share their stories of the devastating impact of the incidents. The purpose is for communities to see and hear first-hand from survivors and to raise awareness of the deadly consequences of impaired driving crashes.
“Their lives are changed forever,” DePamphilis said of the survivors. “It is not right for someone to die because you wanted to get drunk.”
No Marblehead official has contacted MADD since the August crash, she said.
National picture
In 2023, the most recent year for which official statistics are available, there were 12,429 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in the U.S in which a driver had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.8 or higher, with 116 of those in Massachusetts, according to data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In the past five years, there has been a 22% increase in deaths or injuries nationwide due to alcohol-related vehicle crashes — and a 4% increase
in Massachusetts, DePamphilis said.
“The numbers are staggering,” she said.
Marblehead arrest numbers
Marblehead police made 808 total arrests during this 10-year-period, with two 17-year-old males among the 330 arrests for drunkenness and driving under the influence, the data shows.
Arrests for all crimes in Marblehead plummeted in this time, going from 137 in 2014 to 37 in 2024. Arrests for drunkenness and driving under the influence also plunged, going from 66 in 2014 to seven in 2024, the data shows.
King said numerous factors affect a community’s yearly arrest numbers, including changes in laws, heightened awareness about crime and individual behavior modification.
Marblehead’s chief for four years, King said the arrest declines between 2014 and 2024 do not mean police are less aggressive in enforcing laws. King said every driving under the influence arrest in Marblehead resulted in an adjudication in state court.
“Anytime arrests are going down it is a positive thing for the community, because that’s an indicator that the activity is going down,” King said.
Talk to your children
With the holidays approaching, DePamphilis urged parents to talk to their children about the risks of drinking and driving.
“The night before Thanksgiving is one of the deadliest nights of the year because a lot of kids come home from college,” she said. “It’s a huge drinking night.”
Families need to have open conversations about the catastrophic consequences that could occur, DePamphilis added.
“Do not get in a car with someone who has been drinking,” she said. “You need to have a safe way to get home. These are crimes that are 100% preventable.”
Maggie Mulvihill is a Marblehead resident and investigative reporter who teaches computational journalism at Boston University. This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Current and Mulvihill’s BU Data Journalism course.
