UPDATE, JUNE 14, 3:03 P.M.: The Costa Mesa Police Department reports that 1,467 vehicles passed through the checkpoint it set up at the undisclosed intersection of Bear and Baker streets Monday night, 858 vehicles were screened, three drivers were given field sobriety tests . . .
. . . and only one stinkin' DUI arrest was made.
]
True, the operation was a success in removing from the streets a 26-year-old Costa Mesa man who was already on probation for a previous DUI arrest less than a year ago. This was also the gent's third DUI arrest since getting his drivers license.
And, yes, the checkpoint also netted another driver arrested on suspicion of possession of deadly weapons (a switch blade knife and brass knuckles), and the issuance of 27 citations to others for various offenses.
But there are bound to be critics of all that holler for two arrests.
The complete stats:
1,467 Vehicles
through the checkpoint858
Vehicles screened3 Drivers
given field sobriety tests1 DUI
suspects arrested1 DUI
warrant served1 Deadly
weapons arrest30
Driver's license investigations27
Citations issued13 Vehicles
towed
ORIGINAL POST, JUNE 13, 9:41 A.M.: If you thought it was safe to get your drink on and drive tonight
because it is neither the weekend nor the end of a three-day holiday,
think again.
That is, think again if you plan to drive through
Costa Mesa, where police have a DUI/drivers license checkpoint scheduled
somewhere within city limits from 6 p.m. to midnight.
Cops will check drivers passing through the stop for licenses and signs of impaired driving.
According to a department-issued statement, the odds of being involved in an alcohol-related crash increase during the summer months.
For that reason, Costa
Mesa police have partnered with the summertime Avoid
the 26 DUI Campaign, which has officers from various Orange County cop shops joining forces for one another's anti-DUI operations. They warn of increased checkpoints and saturation patrols
from Fourth of July weekend through Labor Day in August.
As usual, funding is provided by a grant from the California
Office of Traffic Safety, 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.