Officers from the Long Beach Police Department’s (LBPD) DUI Enforcement Team will be on the lookout for impaired drivers this weekend.
DUI Saturation Patrols will deploy throughout Long Beach to stop and arrest alcohol and drug-impaired drivers on Saturday between 7PM and 3AM in areas with high frequencies of DUI collisions and/or arrests, police said.
“After falling dramatically for five straight years, figures for 2012 show an increase to 802 deaths in California because someone failed to designate a sober driver,” according to a statement from the LBPD. “Over the course of the past three years in Long Beach, DUI collisions have claimed nine lives and resulted in 315 injury crashes, harming 420 of our friends and neighbors.”
Funding for the program is provided by a California Office of Traffic Safety grant, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Residents can report drunk drivers by calling 911.