Dennis RomeroSeems like cops took a break from the checkpoint business last week. Maybe they needed all the help they could get responding to Halloween parties.
Police are back on the case in a big way this weekend, with a checkpoint in Hollywood tonight and extra patrols on the streets in search of drunk drivers in clubland tomorrow .
Here's your cheat sheet:
–Tonight from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. there will be a DUI checkpoint on Sunset Boulevard and Orange Grove Avenue. That's on your route from the Sunset Strip to Hollywood clubland.
–Tonight from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. cops will be checking you for inebriation at Florence Avenue and Main Street in South L.A.
–Saturday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. police will be back on the streets of Hollywood, this time for what the LAPD calls a DUI “saturation patrol.” That means there will be extra black-and-whites looking for drunk drivers in the department's Hollywood Division area.
Credit: LAPD
–Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight there will be a DUI checkpoint on Vernon Avenue at Figueroa Street in South L.A.
–Saturday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. cops will be checking for drunks on Roscoe Boulevard and Allott Avenue in panoramic Panorama City.
–Saturday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. the LAPD will have a DUI checkpoint set up on Ventura Boulevard at Columbus Avenue in Sherman Oaks.
–Sunday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. there will be a drunk-driver saturation patrol downtown, in what the LAPD refers to as its Central Division area.
Credit: LAPD
From time to time, some of you still ask why we give you this information. The LAPD wants it out there. And cops say publicity is actually a good thing. Here's a canned statement from the department:
The deterrent effect of sobriety checkpoints is a proven resource in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol or drug involved crashes. Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough.
Be safe.
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