The Delaware Office of Highway Safety yesterday announced that this year’s Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign will start this weekend.
Checkpoints are scheduled for:
Friday June 29th – Newport – (NcCo DUI Task Force) – checkpoint
Saturday June 30th – Woodside/Magnolia -(DSP Troop 3)- checkpoint
Georgetown- (Multi-jurisdictional effort)- checkpoint
The following material has been copied directly from the press release:
There are eighty-one (81) sobriety checkpoints scheduled to take place during the six month longCheckpoint Strikeforce campaign. There will also be stepped up enforcement during peak holiday times including Labor Day, Halloween, and the month of December with additional DUI saturation patrols statewide.
The New Castle County DUI Task Force will again be conducting sobriety checkpoints throughout the county during the campaign. The DUI Task Force is comprised of officers from the Division of Alcohol Tobacco Enforcement (DATE), Division of Capitol Police, Middletown PD, New Castle City PD, New Castle County PD, Newark PD, Newport PD, University of Delaware PD, and Wilmington PD. Delaware State Police will also participate as part of this Task Force.
This year, OHS has partnered with Dover PD, Georgetown PD, Rehoboth Beach PD, Milford PD, Seaford PD, Harrington PD, and Smyrna PD to coordinate multi-jurisdictional checkpoints within their town limits throughout the next six months. Agencies that will be assisting with these multi-jurisdictional checkpoints include Blades PD, Bridgeville PD, Camden PD, Capitol PD, Clayton PD, the Division of Alcohol & Tobacco Enforcement, Dewey Beach PD, Felton PD, Greenwood PD, Harrington PD, Laurel PD, Milford PD, Milton PD, Smyrna PD, and Wyoming PD.
The campaign’s enforcement activities will be supplemented by an all new intense public awareness and education campaign that highlight the realities and consequences of a DUI in Delaware in the form of T.V., radio spots, billboards, print, internet ads, and websitewww.DUIRealTime.com. OHS will tally the total number of DUI arrests made during the year in Delaware and display the total on one featured billboard in each county and on the website DUIRealTime.com. The featured billboards are located at Wilmington I-95 southbound, north Dover Route US 13 southbound, and Georgetown Route 113 northbound. OHS’s corporate partners will also receive flyers, posters, and table tents to display and help spread the message.
Those convicted of a first time DUI offense in Delaware may spend up to 1 year in prison, and will lose their license, attend an 8-week DUI treatment class and pay thousands of dollars in court, treatment, DMV, and lawyer’s fees.
Checkpoint Strikeforce is a regional sobriety checkpoint campaign aimed at arresting DUI offenders by using high visibility enforcement to deter those who would otherwise choose to drink and drive. The campaign is a six month long effort coordinated locally by the Delaware Office of Highway Safety and involves setting up weekly DUI checkpoints & patrols statewide. Officers participating in the 2011 campaign made 490 DUI arrests.