San Diego DUI Lawyers Blog
San Diego County law enforcement, including the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol, have announced drunk driving saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints throughout the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
The following are specific law enforcement public announcements regarding their efforts to keep drunk drivers off the road:
- San Diego Sheriff’s Department: Saturation patrols throughout San Diego on Wednesday, November 23rd, and continuing throughout the holiday weekend.
- San Diego Sheriff’s Department, Encinitas Station: Saturation patrols in Encinitas, Solana Beach, and Del Mar on Thursday, November 24th.
- San Diego Sheriff’s, Court Services Division: Vista warrant sweep at the Walmart shopping center at the 1800 block of University on Friday, November 25th.
- California Highway Patrol (CHP): Announced they received funding for their IDEA, Impaired Driving Enforcement and Apprehension, Program. They will implement their Thanksgiving Maximum Enforcement Period (MEP), specifically looking for drunk drivers and those not wearing their seatbelt, from 6:01 p.m. on Wednesday, November 23rd, through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 27th.
According to CHP’s statistics, they arrested 1,546 drunk drivers during the Thanksgiving weekend in 2010, a 6% increase over the 2009 DUI arrests.
Funding for all these state and local checkpoints and saturation patrols comes from a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Statistics on DUI arrests can be found on CaliforniaAvoid.com, as the website is updated throughout the holiday season.
To avoid the possibility of a DUI arrest, holiday partiers should plan a safe way home before the festivities begin. Designate a sober driver, have a taxi company’s number stored in your phone and use it, call a sober friend or family member for a ride, or use public transportation.
Note: The above list of drunk driving roadblocks and saturation patrols is not an all-inclusive list. Many law enforcement agencies in San Diego do not post their DUI enforcement details online. However, we will continue to search for any that are published and we will update this blog accordingly throughout this holiday season.
Update: (November 27th, 2011) The San Diego Sheriff’s Department, Court Services Division, held a warrant sweep in Vista at the Walmart shopping center at the 1800 block of University on Friday, November 25th. 17 people were arrested, including some for DUI.
Update: (November 28th, 2011) 60 driving under the influence arrests were made in San Diego County by CHP between 6:01 p.m. Wednesday and 6:00 a.m. Saturday, according to cbs8.com. Last year’s total DUI arrests for the same period of time was 59. The decrease trend continued in all of California, as the CHP arrested 903 suspected drunk drivers during this year’s Thanksgiving holiday weekend throughout the state, as opposed to 975 last year.
San Diego Police and the San Diego Sheriff’s Department have not released their drunk driving statistics as of the time of this posting’s update.
If you get arrested for drunk driving this holiday season, do not just plead guilty! Even if you had a blood alcohol content (BAC) at or above the legal limit of .08%, there may still be defenses in your case that can lead to reduced charges with less punishment, or even a dismissal! For a free, confidential consultation, contact The Law Offices of Susan L. Hartman today at 619-260-1122 or use the “Contact Us” form on this page.