The 2011-12 Winter Holiday DUI Mobilization crackdown on drinking drivers has ended and resulted in a significant number of DUI arrests from the Sobriety Checkpoints, Special Saturation Patrols and routine patrols in the Los Angeles County “Avoid the 100” DUI Campaign for the past
17 days.

From 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 16 through midnight on Sunday, Jan. 1, officers representing 100 county law enforcement agencies arrested 2,433 individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

In 2010-11 2,406 DUI arrests occurred during the same time period.     These numbers are in comparison to last year’s totals during the holiday period.

Law enforcement officials will be conducting more Avoid DUI operations throughout the county and region next during Super Bowl Sunday in February and then again for local St. Patrick’s Day Festivities in March.

Police, sheriff and the CHP encourage all motorists to help law enforcement by reporting drunk drivers and calling 9-1-1 anytime an impaired driver is encountered.

DUI checkpoints, along with regularly scheduled high visibility DUI enforcement, are proven strategies with the goal of removing impaired drivers from the road and heightening awareness of the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), sobriety checkpoint programs can yield considerable cost savings of about $6 for every $1 spent.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety http://www.ots.ca.gov/, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration http://www.nhtsa.gov/.