DUI Arrests Down in San Mateo County

After a two-plus week statewide DUI enforcement program, six Bay Area counties have lowered their arrest totals from last year, and one county
nearly doubled its arrests.

As part of the California AVOID Anti-DUI program, law-enforcement agencies, in a joint effort, set up DUI checkpoints throughout their county limits to crackdown on drunk driving.

The summer program ran from Aug. 17 through Labor Day on Sept. 3.      

Statewide, arrests were down, according to California Highway Patrol records. The CHP made 1,363 this year. A year ago, 1,531 arrests were made during the same period.

In the Bay Area, San Mateo County recorded 50 fewer arrests this year from last.

San Francisco County, in its "AVOID The 8" campaign, arrests went down 23 percent. In 2011, the arrest total was 186. This year, the maximum
enforcement DUI checkpoints tallied 144 arrests.

Santa Clara County made 73 fewer arrests this year;  Monterey County made 46 fewer arrests; Solano County recorded 21 fewer arrests; and Sonoma County tallied six fewer arrests.

Only Marin County recorded an increase in arrests from a year ago. The joint effort in the "AVOID The 13 Marin County Campaign" made 97 arrests, up from the 56 in 2011.

Alameda County did not record any figures on arrests throughout the 18-day program.

No DUI-associated fatal crashes were recorded in the Bay Area during the crackdown.

The next statewide planned DUI crackdown effort, the winter mobilization, will run from mid-December through Dec. 31.

--Bay City News

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