The heat continues to increase through out the state of Colorado
for DUI enforcement.
The campaign for 100 Days of Heat began over Memorial Day
weekend and will continue through the summer until Labor Day
weekend.
The Colorado State Patrol and more than 65 other law enforcement
agencies are participating in the campaign which will increase
patrol coverage all over the state as well as 150 sobriety
checkpoints. The Elbert County Sheriff’s Office is among the
participants and will have three upcoming DUI checkpoints on June
19 in an effort to step up the DUI enforcement over the summer.
Mark Wilson, an investigator at the Sheriff’s Office, said the
announcement of the checkpoints will inform citizens that as long
as they are not drinking and driving they have nothing to worry
about. He said it is the people who repeatedly continue to drive
drunk who cause accidents that deputies are looking for.
“Sooner or later you will get caught if you continue to drink
and drive,” he said. “And it could cost you $10,000 to defend
yourself and for second offenders, jail time.”
Wilson said patrol is increased during the DUI checkpoints in
order to stack as many deputies as possible on the roads. He said
the Sheriff’s Office was given a grant through the Law Enforcement
Assistance fund in order to pay deputies overtime for volunteering
to work extra during the DUI checkpoint dates.
“We are out there to get the repeat offenders to keep the
innocent public safe,” he said. “It seems to be the innocent people
who always end up getting hurt.
The Sheriff’s Office will continue to have DUI checkpoints
through out the summer on July 3, August 12 and September 5. Other
counties participating in the campaign include Adams, Arapaho and
Jefferson Counties as well as the Parker Police Department.
According to the Colorado State Patrol in 2008 38 percent of all
traffic fatalities in Colorado involved alcohol killing 211
people.
“Despite a continued decline in traffic fatalities in Colorado,
there continues to be far too many deaths that could be avoided if
people simply did not commit the crime of getting behind the wheel
or riding their motorcycle after drinking alcohol,” said Pam
Hutton, governor’s representative for highway safety at the
Colorado Department of Transportation. “We will continue to support
the state’s law enforcement agencies with grants to increase DUI
enforcement year-round.”
