See Update No. 5 at the bottom of Page 2 on a courthouse sting involving people with licenses suspended due to DUI. Update No. 4 revised DUI arrest results during the end-of-summer crackdown. Update No. 3 is on a DUI task force sweep. Update No. 2 has opening weekend DUI arrest totals. Update No. 1 was on a late-added checkpoint.
ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 15: Summer ending anti-DUI enforcement kicks off tonight with three–count 'em–three DUI checkpoints, in the cities of Irvine, Tustin and Garden Grove.
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Few Places in Orange County DON'T Have Weekend Anti-DUI Patrols and Checkpoints
Irvine is up first from 7 p.m. through 2 a.m. Saturday in the area of Bake Parkway and Rockfield Boulevard.
Neighboring Tustin's is from 8 tonight through 3 a.m. Saturday, while Garden Grove has checkpoints tonight and Saturday night, each from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. the following morning. Neither city's police department revealed the locations of their sobriety stops.
The Orange County Sheriff's Department, on behalf of the Avoid the 38 Task Force that is named after the number of OC law enforcement agencies that participate, announced Thursday that through Sept. 1 there will be at least:
* 5 DUI/Driver's License Checkpoints;
* 2 Multi-Agency DUI/Driver's License Checkpoints;
* 9 DUI Saturation Patrols;
* 3 Multi-Agency DUI Saturation Patrols;
* 2 DUI Warrant/Probation Sweeps;
* 1 DUI Court Sting targeting suspended drivers who were ordered by the judge not to drive.
Here are some of those future DUI/Driver's License Checkpoints:
* City of Stanton (OCSD): Fri, Aug. 22, 6 p.m.- a.m.
* Cities of Cypress, La Palma, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach (Multi-Agency): Fri, Aug. 22, 7 p.m.-3 a.m.
* Cities of Irvine and Tustin (Multi-Agency): Fri, Aug. 29, 7 p.m.-3 a.m.
* Brea, Buena Park and Westminster will also have checkpoints some time during the summer enforcement period.
DUI Saturation Patrols:
* Cities of Los Alamitos and Seal Beach (Multi-Agency): Fri, Aug. 22, 7 p.m.-3 a.m.
* Cal State Fullerton Police: Sat, Aug. 23, 7 p.m.-3 a.m.
* Cities of Garden Grove, Seal Beach and Westminster (Multi-Agency): Sat, Aug. 23, 7 p.m.-3 a.m.
* City of Orange: Fri, Aug. 29, 7 p.m.-3 a.m.
* Irvine and Tustin (Multi-Agency); Anaheim; Fountain Valley; Los Alamitos; Placentia; Seal Beach; Tustin; and UC Irvine Police will also have saturation patrols some time during the summer enforcement period.
The Orange County Sheriff's Department and Westminster Police Department will have DUI warrant/probation sweeps, while deputies will also run a DUI court sting operation.
Funding for all of these operations comes from grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
UPDATE NO. 1, AUG. 16, 11:01 A.M.: The Huntington Beach Police Department announced on its Facebook page a checkpoint some time tonight, Saturday night, in an undisclosed location.
UPDATE NO. 2, AUG. 16, 8:17 A.M.: At least 169 people were arrested for alleged drunken driving during Avoid the 38's end-of-summer operations from 12:01 a.m. Friday through midnight Sunday throughout Orange County. There were no DUI-related deaths reported during those days.
The sheriff's department notes those numbers are provisional as some agencies have yet to report.
In 2013, there were 149 DUI arrests over the same three-day time frame.
UPDATE NO. 3, AUG. 21, 6 A.M.: The original post mentioned that among the anti-DUI task force's countywide, end-of-summer operations was a sweep “in search of high risk DUI offenders.” That happened Monday, when Orange County sheriff's deputies dispersed into neighborhoods with dozens of outstanding arrest warrants
Eight people were arrested on suspicion of either having failed to show up for a court date or probation violations from an outstanding DUI case, the sheriff's department announced Wednesday. Most now face jail time or additional jail time.
“The best bet for anyone with a missed DUI court date is to go to court on their own,” says Deputy Shane Stewart of the sheriff's Traffic Bureau in an Avoid the 38 statement. “If you don't, that warrant isn't going away. We're going to come find you and take you to jail.”
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UPDATE NO. 4, AUG. 26, 7:30 A.M.: From 12:01 a.m. Friday, Aug. 15, through midnight Sunday, Aug. 24, officers and deputies representing 38 Orange County law enforcement agencies (of “Avoid the 38” fame) made at least 483 arrests for suspected driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
That's at least because some agencies had not yet reported, according to the sheriff's department.
Over the same period in 2013, there were 374 DUI arrests–so, yes, we're up … a lot. Where's your anti-boozy driving messiah now?
Perhaps watching over everyone as no DUI-related deaths were reported during the period.
Avoid the 38 is keeping tabs through the end of Labor Day, so stay tuned.
UPDATE NO. 5, AUG. 28, 7:33 A.M.: A week to the day after arresting eight people with outstanding warrants for DUI related offenses, sheriff's deputies arrested three more people not allowed to drive due to DUI in a courthouse sting.
On Monday, deputies watched eight offenders who'd had their licenses suspended or been told by judges not to drive leave their appearances at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach. Five of them did what they were supposed to, leaving the area via alternative transportation.
However, three others got behind the wheels of vehicles and drove away, only to be quickly stopped by deputies and arrested on suspicion of driving on suspended licenses. Each was released at the scene and had their rides impounded for 30 days, according to a statement from the “Avoid the 38” task force.
Besides being left with no ride and a car that will have to be retrieved from impound (for a fee), each individual faces more jail time, a longer driver's license suspension and possible financial hits including attorney fees, court costs, lost time at work and loss of job or job prospects, the task force warns.
The courthouse sting is part of the end-of-summer enforcement that also includes DUI checkpoints, saturation patrols and other operations continuing through late Monday.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
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.