Santa Clara County police agencies reported they arrested 21 people for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs after the first night of the Winter Holiday Anti-DUI crackdown.
The arrests came from routine traffic enforcement and special Avoid the 13 DUI deployments overnight in Santa Clara County, according to Jose Cardozo of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, which coordinates the anti-DUI program throughout the year .
In 2011, 31 DUI arrests occurred during the same 24-hour time period.
There were no DUI deaths overnight.
For Saturday December 15, a DUI warrant sweep will be conducted in Santa Clara County, a DUI checkpoint will be conducted in the City of San Jose, and extra local DUI "saturation patrols" will deployed in the cities of Mountain View, Gilroy, and Morgan Hill.
All regularly scheduled traffic and patrol officers will focus efforts at stopping and arresting DUI drivers during their normal shifts, Cardozo said. Multiple DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoints, Multi Agency DUI Task Force operationsand local Roving DUI patrols are all part of this region-wide crackdown during the 19-day Winter Holiday Campaign.
DUI arrest data collection will continue through New Year’s Weekend, midnight Sunday, January 1, 2013.
The program is paid for with a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.