UPDATE, DEC. 28, 10:57 A.M.: During the first 10 days of the “Avoid the 38” campaign's Winter Holiday Anti-DUI Crackdown–which ran from 12:01 a.m. Friday, Dec. 16, through midnight Sunday, Dec. 25–officers from 38 law enforcement agencies across the county arrested 476 individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. During the same 10 days of 2010, 443 DUI arrests were made.
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Thankfully, no DUI-related deaths have been reported.
The campaign continues with these scheduled sobriety checkpoints:
Friday: 7 p.m.-3 a.m. at 1200 E. Ball Road, Anaheim, and between the same times in Westminster. Buena Park hosts a multi-agency DUI/drivers license checkpoint from 8 p.m.-3 a.m. at Beach Boulevard and 10th Street. There's another between the same times in Huntington Beach.
A release from “Avoid the 38” notes there is also a checkpoint scheduled in Laguna Niguel. The campaign also includes these saturation patrols, where areas known to be frequented by drunken drivers are targeted:
Friday: 6:30 p.m.-2:30 a.m. in Laguna Niguel; 7 p.m.-3 a.m. in La Habra; and 8 p.m.-3 a.m. in Laguna Beach.
Saturday (New Year's Eve): 7 p.m.-3 a.m. in La Habra; and 8 p.m.-3 a.m. in Westminster and Placentia.
The DUI arrest data collection will continue through midnight
Sunday (Jan. 1, 2012).
ORIGINAL POST, DEC. 16, 4:57 P.M.: Gentlemen, do not start your engines. That is, if you've had too many–and even if you aren't a gentleman–you'd be wise to call a cab, find a sober driver or start thumbing it because Orange County law enforcement agencies kick off a spate of DUI checkpoints through New Year's Eve and beyond.
Up first: Dec. 16 checkpoints in Irvine, the campus of UC Irvine, Lake Forest and La Habra. There's a bunch more in other locations around the county the night of Dec. 17.
The schedule from the countywide Avoid the 38 campaign, which includes sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols of streets known to attract drunken drivers, follows . . .
Fri., Dec. 16, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Irvine
Fri., Dec. 16, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 6 p.m.-2 a.m., Lake Forest
Fri., Dec. 16, DUI saturation patrols, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., Irvine
Fri., Dec. 16, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., La Habra
Fri., Dec. 16, DUI saturation patrols, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., UC Irvine
Fri., Dec. 16, Multi-agency DUI task force, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., hosted by the city of Westminster
Sat., Dec. 17, DUI saturation patrols, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., Anaheim
Sat., Dec 17, DUI saturation patrols, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Brea
Sat., Dec 17, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., 1800 W. Ball Rd., Anaheim
Sat., Dec. 17, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Placentia
Sat., Dec. 17, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., La Habra
Sat., Dec. 17, DUI saturation patrols, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Garden Grove
Sat., Dec. 17, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., Imperial Hwy. and Valley View, Brea
Sat., Dec 17, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., Garden Grove
Sun., Dec. 18, DUI saturation patrols, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Los Alamitos
Sun., Dec. 18, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Garden Grove
Week of Dec. 19, Warrant/probation sweeps, countywide
Fri., Dec. 23, DUI saturation patrols, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Laguna Beach
Fri., Dec. 23, DUI saturation patrols, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Tustin
Fri., Dec. 23, DUI saturation patrols, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., Anaheim
Fri., Dec. 23, DUI saturation patrols, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., Irvine
Fri., Dec. 23, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Irvine
Fri., Dec. 23, Multi-agency DUI task force, 8 p.m.3 a.m., hosted by city of Buena Park
Fri., Dec 30, DUI saturation patrols, 6 p.m.-2 a.m., Laguna Niguel
Fri., Dec. 30, DUI saturation patrols, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Laguna Beach
Fri., Dec. 30, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Huntington Beach
Fri., Dec. 30, DUI saturation patrols, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., La Habra
Fri., Dec. 30, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., Westminster
Fri., Dec. 30, DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., 1200 E. Ball Rd., Anaheim
Fri., Dec. 30, Multi-agency DUI/drivers license checkpoint, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., hosted by the city of Buena Park, Beach Blvd. and 10th St.
Sat., Dec. 31, DUI saturation patrols, 7 p.m.-3 a.m., La Habra
Sat., Dec. 31, DUI saturation patrols, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Westminster
Sat., Dec. 31, DUI saturation patrols, 8 p.m.-3 a.m., Placentia
The Orange County Sheriff's Department will also be conducting multiple DUI saturation
patrols in its contract cities throughout the winter “Avoid” period.
We'll update this post if we discover other enforcements have been added. If you hear of any, let us know in the comments section.
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.