Motorists will continue to see saturated police presence on the roads during holidays, as well as the occasional DUI checkpoints over the next year or so now that the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office received a grant for $180,000 from the California Office of Traffic Safety.
The sheriff’s office will administer the grant for other agencies in the county including the Morgan Hill Police Department, on behalf of the Santa Clara County Police Chiefs Association, according to a press release from Sgt. Jose Cardoza with the Sheriff’s Office. The money will be used to pay for costs associated with the annual “Avoid the 13” DUI crackdown campaign.
The Campaign is meant to send a message that if you make a responsible choice to not drink and drive, you will avoid getting arrested by any of the 14 participating law enforcement agencies in the county,” said Campbell Police Chief Greg Finch, who is President of the Santa Clara County Police Chiefs Association.
The primary cause of deaths on local streets and highways is drunk driving, Cardoza added.
The grant activities will specifically target those who drink too much and get behind the wheel, according to the sheriff’s press release. Officers will be staffing multi-agency DUI/Driver’s license checkpoints and local DUI saturation patrols for each partnering.
“The Avoid DUI Task Forces have been an essential part of the phenomenal reduction in DUI deaths on our roadways in the last five years in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “Tragically, DUI deaths remain the largest sector, at over 30 percent of traffic fatalities. This grant will help combat that, making Santa Clara County a safer place to live and work.”
Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized DUI and driver’s license checkpoints are conducted periodically, Cardoza said. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, checkpoints have provided the most effective documented results of any of the DUI enforcement strategies, while yielding cost savings of $6 for every $1 spent.
Motorists can expect to see special DUI campaigns during the winter and summer holiday periods as well as on Halloween, Super Bowl Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and during local special events with
identified DUI Problems, police said. Funding for the grant comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Campbell Police Department
Gilroy Police Department
Los Altos Police Department
Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department
Milpitas Police Department
Morgan Hill Police Department
Mountain View Police Department
Palo Alto Police Department
San Jose Police Department
San Jose State University Police Department
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office
Santa Clara Police Department
Sunnyvale Department
