AURORA | Colorado motorists can expect to see plenty of police on the streets this Fourth of July weekend.
The Colorado Department of Transportation said Tuesday that it’s annual “Heat Is On” campaign will include 96 law enforcement agencies around the state conducting increased DUI patrols and DUI checkpoints.
“It is zero tolerance for any person driving impaired on our highways,” Col. Scott Hernandez, Chief of the Colorado State Patrol, said in a statement. “The summer months are typically the most dangerous on our roadways, and together with our partner law enforcement agencies our goal is to put an end to drivers that choose to make the irresponsible and potentially deadly decision to drive while impaired.”
The holiday crackdown is set to start at 6 p.m. Wednesday and continue through 3 a.m. Monday.
Last July, 14 people in Colorado were because of an alcohol-related automobile crashes, according to CDOT. And last year’s Fourth of July crackdown saw 632 DUI arrests.
In Aurora, Lt. Jeff Turner, who oversees the police department’s traffic section, said the department’s DUI enforcement team will be on patrol all weekend, as will some extra officers.
“And certainly all of our officers will be looking for drunk drivers,” he said.
APD doesn’t have a DUI checkpoint planned for the holiday weekend, but they did have one last week on East Mississippi Avenue. Turner said that checkpoint netted four DUI arrests.
Turner said the checkpoints don’t often result in many arrests, but they do send a message to motorists that they should avoid driving drunk because they might run into one.
“The good news is almost everybody was sober when they came through,” he said.