See Update No. 3 on Page 2 with arrest totals countywide through the first week of the summer DUI crackdown. Update Nos. 1-2 on the next page are about checkpoints in Placentia and Santa Ana.
ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 23, 7:30 A.M.: The Orange County law enforcement mobilization against drugged or drunken driving through Labor Day weekend continues tonight with extra patrols of streets known for DUI activity in Placentia and Garden Grove.
The police departments of Garden Grove, Cypress, La Palma and Seal Beach previously announced DUI/drivers license checkpoints Saturday night.
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The Garden Grove Police Department Traffic Unit revealed its sobriety stop runs from 9 p.m. Saturday through 3 a.m. Sunday in the area of Chapman Avenue and Euclid Street.
No locations were given for the Cypress, La Palma and Seal Beach checkpoints Saturday night.
Other checkpoints were previously announced for Seal Beach on Thursday, Aug. 29; and Anaheim and Costa Mesa on Friday, Aug. 30.
Westminster, Laguna Beach and Irvine also have checkpoints coming on undetermined dates, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department-run “Avoid the 38” DUI task force—the number representing how many Orange County law enforcement agencies belong.
The task force agencies are stepping up efforts through Sept. 2 as part of the annual nationwide “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” crackdown on drunken driving. Last weekend, which was the first weekend of the campaign, resulted in at least 149 DUI-related arrests countywide, according to the sheriff's department, which also logged no fatalities.
“Avoid the 38” announced future saturation patrols in these cities: Los Alamitos on Monday; Orange, Seal Beach and Placentia on Friday, Aug. 30; and Anaheim, Sunday, Sept. 1.
Cal State Fullerton Police and cops in Buena Park and Laguna Beach also have saturation patrols coming though the dates have not yet been determined, according to “Avoid the 38,” which notes these and other police agencies could schedule additional operations like this before the summer is out.
Funding for “Avoid the 38” programs and local city checkpoints and patrols is provided by grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They claim taxpayers save $6 for every $1 spent on these ops.
UPDATE NO. 1, AUG. 23, 9:47 A.M.: The Santa Ana Police Department is holding a DUI/drivers license checkpoint TONIGHT, from 7:30 p.m. through early Saturday morning.
It'll be in the 1100 block of West First Street, near where a fatal motorcycle accident occurred Thursday, Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, the Santa Ana Police spokesman, reportedly tells City News Service.
The 19-year-old motorcycle rider was killed about 10:30 a.m. Thursday after broadsiding a Ford F-150 whose driver was making a u-turn on West First Street at Olive Street.
UPDATE NO. 2, AUG. 23, 12:27 P.M.: Saturation patrols are not all that Placentia Police have cooking tonight as City News Service reports a checkpoint at an undisclosed location in that city starting at 8 p.m.
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UPDATE NO. 3, AUG. 26, 8:27 A.M.: For Orange County's part after the first week of the “Summer/Labor Day National Anti-DUI” crackdown, there have been at least 316 arrests, according to the sheriff's department. That's how many drunken or drugged driving arrests the “Avoid the 38” task force logged from Friday, August 16, at 12:01 a.m. through Friday, August 23, at midnight, and the number may be higher because not all of Orange County's 38 law enforcement agencies have checked in yet.
Over the same period last year, there were 310 arrests, according to “Avoid the 38,” which is administered by the sheriff's department. Heightened operations continue through Labor Day, the task force warns. Check Navel Gazing for updates on looming DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols.
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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.