Dennis RomeroIt's the season of giving, if by giving you mean cops giving you a DUI citation that could ultimately cost more than $15,000 to fight and lose, according to the Auto Club of Southern California.
That's quite a present. Luckily, the Los Angeles Police Department doesn't want to put coal in your stocking just yet. Its holiday DUI crackdown is in full swing this weekend, true, but cops are warning you where they'll be and when they'll be there.
The LAPD and other area agencies hope you'll take note and decide not to drink and drive at all. Here's what you need to know:
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-Tonight from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. there will be an LAPD DUI checkpoint awaiting your arrival at Vermont Avenue and Fifth Street in scenic Koreatown.
-Tonight from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. another checkpoint will be operating at Figueroa and Ninth Streets near Staples Center downtown.
-Tonight from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. the LAPD will be back to one of its favorite intersections, Sunset Boulevard and Orange Grove Avenue, for a 9 p.m.-to-2 a.m. Hollywood checkpoint.
-Tonight from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. the L.A. Sheriff's Department will have a checkpoint for you somewhere in Pico Rivera (they're not saying exactly where, and they don't have to).
-Tonight from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. sheriff's deputies will be manning a checkpoint somewhere in Santa Clarita (and, once again, they're not telling us exactly where).
-Tonight from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. deputies will be rocking a checkpoint in Lakewood (and they're not saying exactly where).
-Tonight from 7 p.m. to 3 p.m. Pasadena police will be getting in on the holiday checkpoint somewhere within their city.
-Tonight other checkpoints and saturation patrols are scheduled for Alhambra (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.), Burbank (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.), Downey, Gardena (8 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.) Glendale ( 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.), Glendora (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.), Hawthorne (8 p.m. to 4 a.m.), Inglewood, Montebello, Pomona, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach, San Gabriel (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.), Santa Monica (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.), Torrance (7:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.), Whittier (7:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.), Santa Fe Springs, West Los Angeles, Lynwood (6 p.m. to 2 a.m.), Malibu, Paramount, the South Bay area, Gardena (8 p.m. 4 a.m.), Monterey Park (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.) and Pomona.
Credit: Lucy Rendler-Kaplan/L.A. Weekly Flickr pool
-Saturday from 7 p.m. to midnight the LAPD will be running a checkpoint at Central Avenue and 81st Street in South L.A.
-Saturday from 7 p.m. to midnight another checkpoint will await you at Manchester and Denver avenues in South Los Angeles.
-Saturday from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. an LAPD checkpoint will be ready for you at Woodman Avenue and Osborne Street in panoramic Panorama City.
-Saturday from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. sheriff's deputies will be operating a checkpoint somewhere in Lancaster (they're not saying exactly where).
-Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight deputies will be doing checkpoint duty somewhere in Norwalk (they're not telling us exactly where).
-Saturday other checkpoints and saturation patrols are scheduled for Arcadia (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.), La Verne (7 p.m. to 2 a.m.), Long Beach, the South Bay area, Gardena (8 p.m. to 4 a.m.) Montebello, Torrance, Whittier (8 p.m. to 4 a.m.), and Bellflower.
-Sunday from noon to 8 p.m. the LAPD will have extra patrol cars and motorcycles on the streets of the LAPD's Hollenbeck Division area, which includes the Eastside and Northeast L.A. Police call this a “saturation patrol.”
-Sunday from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. another saturation patrol will happen, this time in the LAPD's North Hollywood Division area.
-Sunday other patrols will hit El Monte and Redondo Beach (from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., strangely).
Be merry, but be safe.
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