Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

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Our Newport Beach DUI Lawyers have learned that from 12:01 AM Friday August 19, 2011 through Midnight Thursday, August 25, 2011, preliminary numbers show that officers representing Orange County law enforcement agencies have arrested 255 individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Special DUI Enforcement cars as well as all regularly scheduled traffic and patrol officers will continue to focus their efforts on stopping and arresting DUI drivers during their shifts.  Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of  Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. DUI arrest data collection will continue through Labor Day Weekend, midnight Monday, September 5,
2011.   Be careful this Labor Day weekend.

Related articles

• Orange County DUI Checkpoint Locations: Mission Viejo tomorrow (ocduiblog.com)
• Orange County DUI Checkpoint Locations August 26-27 2011 (ocduiblog.com)
• Orange County DUI Checkpoints: (ocduiblog.com)

Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Our Orange County DUI Lawyers have learned from the OC Sheriff’s Department that the 2010/11 Winter Holiday DUI Mobilization crackdown on drinking drivers has ended and resulted in 743 arrests for DUI from 12:01 AM Friday, December 17th, through midnight Sunday January 2, 2011, officers representing Orange County law enforcement agencies arrested 743 individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.  In 2009/10, 602 DUI arrests occurred during the same time period with no deaths reported.

Law enforcement officials will be conducting more “Avoid” anti-DUI efforts throughout the county and region during Super Bowl Sunday and then again for local St Patrick’s Day festivities.

Funding for the AVOID program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Our Orange County DUI Lawyers have learned that there are DUI Checkpoints Planned in Redondo Beach

Redondo Beach, CA – Officers from the Redondo Beach Police Department announced its officers will be conducting DUI/Drivers License Checkpoints partnering with thousands of other law enforcement, which began August 21st throughout the county.

Funding for the Checkpoint is through a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and DUI arrests can be a significant source of revenue and funding for local law enforcement.

“Statewide, DUI deaths fell 9 percent to 1,029 in 2009. Credit for the drop in DUI deaths goes to law enforcement, state and local agencies, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other safety advocates,” said Christopher Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety.

“In addition, the people of California have come together to address this deadly problem and are now seeing results.

As positive as these figures are, though, we can never let up until we achieve our goal of zero deaths.”

“Drunk driving is simply not worth the risk.

Not only do you risk killing yourself or someone else, but the trauma and financial costs of a crash or an arrest for impaired driving can be significant,” said Police Chief Joe Leonardi.

“Violators will face jail time, the loss of their driver’s license, higher insurance rates, attorney fees, time away from work, and dozens of other expenses.

So don’t take the chance. Remember, if you are caught over the limit, you will be placed under arrest.”

“Law enforcement everywhere is asking for the community’s help; if you see a Drunk Driver – Call 911,” said Chief Leonardi.

“In addition to this checkpoint I’ve asked everyone in my department to focus additional efforts toward removing an impaired driver during the campaign period and everyday they are on patrol.”

For more information, visit www.StopImpairedDriving.org and www.californiaavoid.org. Media Notes: To schedule an interview regarding Anti Drunk-Driving efforts, or request a ride-along with law enforcement during the holiday period, please contact Scot Martin at (310) 318-0621.

Traffic Supervisor 401 Diamond Street, P.O. Box 639 Tel #310 379-2477 ext 2721
Sgt. Paul Burch Redondo Beach, California 90277-0639 Fax #310 937-6628
www.redondo.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 08-26-10
CONTACT: Scot Martin, (310) 318-0621

Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

The AVOID Program seeks to publicize the combined DUI enforcement efforts of all participating law enforcement agencies to raise awareness of the increasing problems associated with drinking and driving. These efforts are focused especially during the holiday periods throughout the year when drinking and driving appears to increase.

HOLIDAY ENFORCEMENT PERIODS 2010 – January 2011*

Memorial Day Weekend – May 28 -31, 2010

Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

From Mother Jones, the following article was a sobering look at the reasons why DUI checkpoints persist, even though, as I’ve said, they don’t work in getting drunk drivers off the road:

Sobriety checkpoints in California are increasingly turning into profitable operations for local police departments—operations that are far more likely to seize cars from unlicensed motorists than catch drunk drivers. An investigation by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley with California Watch has found that impounds at checkpoints in 2009 generated an estimated $40 million in towing fees and police fines—revenue that cities divide with towing firms. In addition, police officers received about $30 million in overtime pay for the DUI crackdowns, funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety.

In dozens of interviews over the past three months, law enforcement officials and tow truck operators say that vehicles are predominantly taken from minority drivers, often illegal immigrants. In the course of its examination, the Investigative Reporting Program reviewed hundreds of pages of city financial records and police reports, and analyzed data documenting the results from every checkpoint that received state funding during the past two years. Among the findings:

• Sobriety checkpoints frequently screen traffic within, or near, Hispanic neighborhoods. Cities where Hispanics are a majority of the population are seizing cars at three times the rate of cities with small minority populations. In South Gate, a Los Angeles County city where Hispanics make up 92 percent of the population, police confiscated an average of 86 vehicles per operation last fiscal year.

• The seizures appear to defy a 2005 federal appellate court ruling that determined police cannot impound cars solely because the driver is unlicensed. In fact, police across the state have ratcheted up vehicle seizures. Last year, officers impounded more than 24,000 cars and trucks at checkpoints. That total is roughly seven times higher than the 3,200 drunken driving arrests at roadway operations. The percentage of vehicle seizures has increased 53 percent compared to 2007.

• Departments frequently overstaff checkpoints with officers, all earning overtime. The Moreno Valley Police Department in Riverside County averaged 38 officers at each operation last year, six times more than federal guidelines say is required. Nearly 50 other local police and sheriff’s departments averaged 20 or more officers per checkpoint—operations that averaged three DUI arrests a night.

To be sure, DUI checkpoints have saved countless lives and have brought thousands of drunken drivers to justice. And by inspecting driver’s licenses, police often catch motorists driving unlawfully, typically without insurance. With support from groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, California has more than doubled its use of sobriety checkpoints the past three years.

Law enforcement officials say demographics play no role in determining where those checkpoints are established. Indeed, the Investigative Reporting Program’s analysis did not find evidence that police departments set up checkpoints to specifically target Hispanic neighborhoods. The operations typically take place on major thoroughfares near highways, and minority motorists are often caught in the checkpoints’ net. “All we’re looking for is to screen for sobriety and if you have a licensed driver,” said Capt. Ralph Newcomb of the Montebello Police Department, southeast of Los Angeles. “Where you’re from, what your status is, that never comes up.”

California police have seized the cars of unlicensed drivers for 15 years under the state law that allows such vehicles to be impounded for 30 days. But in 2005, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in an Oregon case that law enforcement can’t impound a vehicle if the only offense is unlicensed driving. To do so would violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects everyone within the United States, whether they are legal residents or not.

One exception is called the “community caretaker” doctrine, which permits police to impound a car if it poses a threat to public safety, is parked illegally or would be vandalized imminently if left in place. But reporters attending checkpoints in Sacramento, Hayward and Los Angeles observed officers impounding cars that appeared to pose no danger. Many of the drivers who lost their cars at these checkpoints were illegal immigrants, based on interviews with the drivers and police. They rarely challenge vehicle seizures or have the cash to recover their cars, studies and interviews show.

Some tow truck company officials relayed stories of immigrant mothers arriving at impound lots to remove baby car seats and children’s toys before leaving the vehicle to the tow firm. “I have to stand here for days and watch them take their whole life out of their vehicles,” said Mattea Ezgar, an office manager at Terra Linda Towing in San Rafael. By contrast, police do not typically seize the cars of motorists arrested for drunken driving, meaning the owners can retrieve their vehicles the next day, according to law enforcement officials.

The city of Montebello, southeast of Los Angeles, runs checkpoints that are among California’s least effective at getting drunks off the road, the Investigative Reporting Program found. Last year, officers there failed to conduct a single field sobriety test at three of the city’s five roadway operations, state records show. Yet the city collected upward of $95,000 during the last fiscal year from checkpoints, including grant money for police overtime. The California Office of Traffic Safety, which is administered in part by officials at UC Berkeley, continues to fund Montebello’s operations, providing a fresh $37,000 grant for this year.

The state does not consistently collect data on where local police departments set up checkpoints. A majority of California law enforcement agencies declined to release records showing which intersections they target, or what transpired at checkpoints, making it difficult to perform a statistical analysis of seizures in heavily minority communities. But cities across the state operate checkpoints in communities with high minority populations, the Investigative Reporting Program found. Checkpoints in cities where Hispanics are the largest share of the population seized 34 cars per operation, a rate three times higher than cities with the smallest Hispanic populations, the analysis shows. The disparity between vehicles impounds and DUI arrests exist in virtually every region of California.

In San Rafael, near San Francisco, 10 of the city’s 12 sobriety checkpoints the past two years took place on streets surrounding the city’s heavily Hispanic neighborhoods. Those operations resulted in four DUI arrests and 121 impounded cars for driver’s license violations. The Los Angeles Police Department averaged six DUI arrests per checkpoint in 2009, state data shows, more than most California departments. But the LAPD’s driver’s license impounds doubled the past two years. One operation in December netted 64 vehicle seizures and just four drunken driving arrests.

The federal government provides the California Office of Traffic Safety about $100 million each year to promote responsible driving that reduces roadway deaths. Of that, $30 million goes into programs that fund drunken driving crackdowns, particularly checkpoints. Police overtime accounts for more than 90 percent of the expense of sobriety checkpoints. Statewide, police departments on average deployed 18 officers at each checkpoint, according to state data. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advises that police can set up checkpoints with as few as six officers. The additional dozen officers typical at a California roadway operation cost state and federal taxpayers an extra $5.5 million during the 2008-2009 fiscal year, according to the Investigative Reporting Program’s analysis. And the LAPD assigned 35 officers, on average, to every sobriety crackdown.

At least a dozen officers spent hours sitting and chatting at an operation in early January in downtown Los Angeles. A couple of officers smoked cigars as they watched cars go through the screening. Officers seized 22 cars that evening and made one DUI arrest. The state data shows that last fiscal year, the LAPD spent $16,200 per checkpoint, all of it on officer overtime. And the trend shows to no sign of letting up. State officials have declared that 2010 will be the “year of the checkpoint,” and police are scheduling 2,500 of the operations throughout California.

I’m a DUI specialist in Orange County, but I am experienced in all Los Angeles DUI and Orange County DUI matters – call me at (877) 568-2977 toll free, anytime.

Related articles:

• CA Sobriety Checkpoints Are Becoming More About Profit Than Drunk Driving (dvorak.org)
• Car Seizures At DUI Checkpoints Raise Money, Legal Questions (huffingtonpost.com)
• Seal Beach: DUI Checkpoint On February 13th (cehwiedel.com)

Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

As someone that handles Los Angeles DUI and Orange County DUI cases daily, I see DUI from the front lines, and I’ve mentioned over and over again that DUI checkpoints don’t work.

Sobriety checkpoints in California are increasingly turning into profitable operations for local police departments, which are far more likely to seize cars from unlicensed motorists than catch drunken drivers, according to an investigation by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley with California Watch.

In 2009, impounds at checkpoints generated some $40 million in towing fees and police fines (revenue that cities divide with towing firms). Police officers received about $30 million in overtime pay for the DUI crackdowns, the investigation found.

Vehicles are predominantly taken from minority motorists – often illegal immigrants, the investigation found:

• Sobriety checkpoints frequently screen traffic within, or near, Hispanic neighborhoods. Cities where Hispanics represent a majority of the population are seizing cars at three times the rate of cities with small minority populations. In South Gate, where Hispanics make up 92 percent of the population, police confiscated an average of 86 vehicles per operation last fiscal year.
• The seizures appear to defy a 2005 federal appellate court ruling that determined police cannot impound cars solely because the driver is unlicensed. In fact, police across the state have ratcheted up vehicle seizures. Last year, officers impounded more than 24,000 cars and trucks at checkpoints. The percentage of vehicle seizures has increased 53 percent compared to 2007.
• Departments frequently overstaff checkpoints with officers, all earning overtime. The Moreno Valley Police Department in Riverside County averaged 38 officers at each operation last year, six times more than federal guidelines say is required. Nearly 50 other local agencies averaged 20 or more officers per checkpoint – operations that averaged three DUI arrests a night.

Law enforcement officials say demographics play no role in determining where police establish checkpoints. Read the full story here.

Related articles

• Car Seizures At DUI Checkpoints Raise Money, Legal Questions (huffingtonpost.com)
• CA Sobriety Checkpoints Are Becoming More About Profit Than Drunk Driving (dvorak.org)
• Seal Beach: Results of DUI Checkpoint (cehwiedel.com)

Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

The OC Weekly newspaper informs our Orange County DUI lawyers of a DUI checkpoint located in Anaheim.

The Anaheim Police Department Traffic Bureau hosts a DUI Sobriety and Driver’s License checkpoint from 8 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday somewhere along Magnolia Avenue–and you’re all invited.

That is, you’re invited if you just happen to be driving along the targeted stretch of road. And you’re really invited if you’re behind the wheel and blowing over the state limit for driving under the influence, or if you forgot your driver’s license, or it’s been suspended, or you don’t have one.

This is the third in a series of six checkpoints scheduled over the next 10 months in Anaheim, and if you’ve been saying to yourself, “Damn, there seems to have been a lot of DUI checkpoints in Orange County lately,” you are right, Rummy!

That because law enforcement agencies have been tapping into funding for these anti-drunk operations provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Use it or lose it, as the bureaucrats like to say.

In addition to the DUI checkpoints, the funding helps departments conduct regular saturation patrols and warrant sweeps aimed at keeping drunken drivers off roads.

Related articles

• Seal Beach: DUI Checkpoint On February 13th (cehwiedel.com)
• Police: Twitter used to avoid DUI checkpoints (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Seal Beach: New Year’s DUI Checkpoints (cehwiedel.com)
• DUI Checkpoint Tonight in North Hollywood (laist.com)
• DUI Checkpoint Tonight at Fairfax and Melrose (laist.com)

Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

As Orange County DUI Lawyers, we get a lot of press releases, and this one baffled me somewhat.  Even though DUI checkpoints certainly don’t work, and aren’t worth the time, energy, traffic snarls, and the wasted resources of police, the State wants to up the DUI checkpoint funding and operations. The following was published in the Sacramento Bee newspaper:

State to expand sobriety checkpoint program

Published Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009

California traffic safety officials will pump $8 million this coming year into an aggressive drunken driving program with a controversial focus: sobriety checkpoints.

Armed with federal grants, police in 150 California cities, including Sacramento, are launching what the state’s Office of Traffic Safety chief says may be the most extensive checkpoint program in the country in 2010, increasing by nearly 50 percent the number of checkpoint operations statewide.

In doing so, police will be ratcheting up efforts on one of the most oft-debated tactics in the anti-drunken driving arsenal.

Commonly seen as traps for unsuspecting drivers leaving bars and restaurants, checkpoints in reality typically result in few drunken driving arrests, data show.

That’s by design, police say. Law enforcement agencies put out alerts to TV, radio and newspapers before they set up a checkpoint so that word hits the street before the orange cones do.

And, they say, they don’t mind that some restaurant managers now send text message warnings to each other when they hear a checkpoint has been set up in their area.

Police and traffic safety officials say they view sobriety checkpoints as a high-profile public relations campaign.

“It’s not about the number of arrests. It’s about the deterrent effect,” state traffic safety chief Chris Murphy said in launching what his office calls “The Year of the Checkpoint.”

Murphy said safety efforts are helping. Road deaths overall have dropped in California the last three years, including alcohol-involved crashes.

Still, about a quarter of road deaths in California are alcohol-related, data show. Alcohol-involved crashes killed 1,029 and injured 28,457 in the state in 2008.

The sight alone of a checkpoint is memorable, keeping some drivers from becoming complacent about the risks of drinking and driving, Murphy said.

Police cruisers, roof bars flashing, light up the night. A funnel of orange cones leads cars toward a row of officers waving flashlights.

Typically, police allow drivers a place to turn to avoid a checkpoint. But, police warn, agencies have “chase” cars ready to follow those drivers if they appear to be driving poorly.

“It is not running and gunning and taking a whole bunch of people to jail, but it’s worthwhile,” said Officer Jason Browning of the Folsom Police Department.

Sobriety checkpoints are arguably better at cornering people who drive without a license than people driving drunk.

Sacramento city police reported that of the 800 vehicles stopped last week at a South Natomas checkpoint, only two were cited for drunken driving but 32 were caught driving without a valid license.

The checkpoints draw heat nationally from the American Beverage Institute, a restaurant trade group that argues they are ineffective, and calls them a form of harassment that “threatens our customers and the cultural dining experience.”

Police should focus instead on going after the worst drunken drivers, those with multiple offenses, institute officials said.

Police agencies counter that checkpoints aren’t their sole focus. California agencies say they routinely conduct “saturation patrols,” where officers from several agencies join in a given area to search out and arrest drunken drivers.

Many of those efforts also are funded by federal grants through the state traffic safety office.

A spokesman for that office said the agency does not have a tally of how much is spent on that type of drunken driving enforcement but that nearly $50 million in funds overall will be funneled to local governments and health agencies this coming year to combat drunken driving and its causes.

Sacramento-area restaurant owners and managers express mixed feelings about checkpoints.

At Ink, a midtown Sacramento restaurant, co-owner Alicia Cortez said she and other restaurant managers text each other when they hear of a nearby checkpoint, and she alerts her bartenders, who encourage patrons to find a designated driver or take a cab.

Nevertheless, she said, she supports checkpoints.

“It’s tough because (alcohol sales) is a huge part of our business and our revenue, but health and safety of patrons and their friends and family is number one,” she said.

At Bistro 33 in Davis, general manager Jason Prater said news of a nearby checkpoint sends a “buzz” through the restaurant’s bar.

He said he senses it causes some customers to drink less. Some customers stick around longer and have coffee. Others, forewarned, take other streets home. Many, he said, walk home.

The relatively small number of arrests at checkpoints may make the state’s $8 million focus next year seem like a gamble. The city of Sacramento, in particular, has a lot at stake.

A new analysis from the state Office of Traffic Safety shows Sacramento rates highest among the state’s 13 largest cities in drunken driving injury crashes.

City officials say they are hoping the federal grant money for sobriety checkpoints will help them dig out of that hole.

State officials defend the increased funding for checkpoints by pointing to a 2002 report, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and overseen by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In that report, a task force of health officials reviewed all notable studies and gave sobriety checkpoints a strong endorsement as an effective tool for reducing alcohol-related road injuries.

But “there is no panacea, no magic bullet,” said task force chair Jonathan Fielding, head of public health for Los Angeles County.

Related articles :

• Police: Twitter used to avoid DUI checkpoints (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Honolulu police posting DUI mug shots on Internet (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• DUI Checkpoint in Downtown Tonight (laist.com)

Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

More Than 1,000 DUI Arrests In LA Over Holidays

Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 02:37 PM

As a result of intensified patrols over the holidays, police in Los Angeles county arrested more than 1,000 drivers for driving under the influence (DUI) in a weeklong campaign that lasted through Christmas Day.

AVOID, a program which aims to unite law enforcement agencies in patrols against alcohol-impaired drivers, reported that 1,030 DUI arrests were made between December 18 and 25, up from 969 arrests over the same time span last year, the Los Angeles Daily Breeze reports.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP), Orange County police and San Diego County law enforcement officers all took part in the initiative.

CHP alone tallied 236 DUI arrests in Las Angeles county this year – up more than 70 from last year – but reported zero traffic deaths, whereas there were four fatalities a year ago.

Though AVOID relies substantially on law enforcement agencies to spot drunk drivers, the program’s officials also call on civilians to participate in the initiative.

Glendora Police Chief Chuck Montoya commented, “If you see a car swerving all over the road, driving dangerously without headlights at night or signaling one way and turning the other, make that call to 911.”

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a first time DUI offender on average has driven drunk 87 times before being arrested.

Related articles:

• New Driver Laws for Drivers in 2010: Drunk Driving Devices, Bicycles & TVs in Cars (laist.com)
• CHP on NYE: Less Fatalities, More DUI Arrests than Last Year (laist.com)
• More New Driving Laws for 2010: Moving Over & Towing (laist.com)

Posts Tagged ‘Law enforcement agency’

Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Another one of the Orange County DUI Checkpoint Locations for this holiday season has been revealed, this time in Costa Mesa, and on a Tuesday (not on New Year’s Eve):

The Costa Mesa Police Department will be conducting a sobriety / driver license checkpoint on Tuesday, December 29, 2009, from 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. The checkpoint will be located northbound Santa Ana Avenue, at 18th Street.

This is Costa Mesa Police Department’s second checkpoint associated with California’s 18 Day Holiday DUI Crackdown Campaign. By the end of the campaign, law enforcement agencies will have deployed 300 DUI/Drivers License Checkpoints statewide. Funding for the special enforcement campaign, which concludes January 3, 2010, comes from a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with volunteer assistance provided by MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).

Orange County DUI arrests were headed down again this year, until the State approved this all out 300 checkpoint holiday sweep, to bring stats up, for law enforcement funding. Looks like this might be the only up year in a 10 year decline in all crimes, especially DUI.

Brought to you by the Orange County DUI Lawyers of Robert Miller and Associates. Call if you have any questions related to this DUI checkpoint.

Related articles:

• Seal Beach: New Year’s DUI Checkpoints (cehwiedel.com)
• Police: Twitter used to avoid DUI checkpoints (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Tawny Kitaen Arrested!! (perezhilton.com)