The Tucson Police Department will conduct a DUI checkpoint Friday night in an effort to keep drunken drivers off the road through the holidays.
There will also be saturation patrols until the end of the year with traffic officers specifically targeting drunken drivers, said Lt. Mike Pryor, commander of TPD’s traffic section.
Friday’s DUI checkpoint will be in a place where drunken drivers are caught regularly or where DUI-related collisions occur, Pryor said. “We’re looking for areas that high incidents of DUI events,” he said.
So far this year Tucson police have arrested more than 3,000 drivers on suspicion of drunken driving, which is up from 2,685 arrested last year, according to a TPD press release. Nine people have died so far this year as a result of DUI-related crashes, compared with 10 last year, the release says.
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This is only the second time in the last 10 years Tucson police have conducted a checkpoint, Pryor said. Instead the Department has focused on the wider-reaching saturation patrols, he said.
The Department is trying to gauge the public’s reaction to the checkpoints, Pryor said, and so far it’s been positive.
Pryor said the checkpoints along with saturation patrols can lead to safer roads. The checkpoints can deter drunken drivers from getting behind the wheel and the saturation patrols provide enforcement through a wider area, he said.
