UPDATE, FEB. 17, 4:33 P.M.: The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has announced its own saturation patrols from 7 tonight through 3 a.m. Saturday in Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel.
ORIGINAL POST, FEB. 17, 5:40 A.M.: Special units of Newport Beach police officers will be on the hunt for alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily tonight through Monday.
The department’s saturation patrols focus on areas of the city with the highest frequencies of DUI collisions and/or arrests, according to an advisory.
Over the past three years, officers have investigated 373 DUI collisions in which four people died and 303 were injured, the Newport Beach Police Department says.
Drivers on the wrong side of a Breathalyzer can expect jail time, fines, fees, DUI classes and other expenses that can exceed $10,000.
Funding for the DUI operation comes from a California Office of Traffic Safety grant, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.