Law enforcement plans Halloween DUI checkpoints
By DAILY SOUND STAFF — Oct. 30, 2009
Law enforcement officials plan to stage a handful of sobriety and driver's license checkpoints in the Goleta and Isla Vista area this weekend in an attempt to nab any intoxicated Halloween revelers who choose to get behind the wheel.
California Highway Patrol officials are staging a checkpoint on Saturday beginning at 9 p.m. and running until 3 a.m. Motorists will be diverted into a designated lane and an officer will check their license and look for any signs of intoxication.
“Checkpoints tend to reduce the number of drunk drivers on the road, even though arrest totals do not rise dramatically,” according to a CHP news release. “A major value of checkpoints is their psychological influence. The news media is advised well in advance whenever a checkpoint is planned, since extensive publicity is also viewed as a legal safeguard.”
Avoid the 12, the campaign named after the various law enforcement agencies in the county, is also holding two sobriety checkpoints in Isla Vista tonight and tomorrow. Officers from throughout the county will stage the checkpoints from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.
“We’re concerned that because Halloween is on a Saturday, more people from around the state will have time to attend for a weekend of partying,” Deputy Win Smith, coordinator of the Avoid the 12 campaign, said in a prepared statement. “We expect about 50,000 to be in town.”
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