Patrol part of ‘Heat Is On’ campaign
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At the corner of Broadway and Pearl streets, drunken twenty-somethings stumble past a DUI checkpoint August 28, after the 2 a.m. last call in the local bars.
As part of the statewide “Heat Is On” campaign, funded by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the upcoming national DUI crackdown for Labor Day weekend, police chose to hold a DUI checkpoint Tuesday night.
At 10 p.m., Boulder police cars swarmed the 1400 block of Walnut Street. They expected to stop every eight drivers and arrest four or five individuals for driving under the influence, said Sgt. Jim Byfield, one of the commanding officers at the checkpoint.
After a few hours and less traffic than expected, the police began stopping every two drivers. The increased patrol proved ineffective. As of 2 a.m., only two of the 40 drivers stopped were inebriated enough to warrant arrest.
Sgt. Byfield said that catching drunks is not necessarily the point of a DUI checkpoint.
“The idea for the checkpoints is that the public see that we are out here,” Byfield said. “It gets their attention that ‘okay, police are out, sobriety checkpoint, I better be careful about the drinking and driving.'”
One Student said the checkpoints are a good idea and can teach drunken drivers an important lesson.
“I think driving drunk is stupid,” said Tori Anderson, a sophomore open-option major. “I think it is a good thing that people would learn their lesson if they get caught. Why not have somebody drive you?”
Being a designated driver should not be underrated either.
“We always try to give the sober driver a break,” Byfield said. “If I were to pull a sober driver over just giving his drunk(en) friends a ride home who are of age then I will try to give them a warning for whatever violation I pulled them over for, since they are doing the right thing.”
Byfield clarified what it means to be a designated driver.
“The important thing in my opinion, the designated driver should not have a drink,” Byfield said. “The reason being is sometimes they gauge their sobriety with their friends, and a lot of designated drivers end up getting arrested.”
Students in Boulder seem to have grasped that concept at a young age, according to Sgt. Jack Walker, the other commanding officer of the checkpoint. He said he estimated that the overall number of DUI tickets issued to students is proportional to the number of students in Boulder.
But the presence of a DUI checkpoint does not mean less police patrolling for drinking-heavy areas like the Hill.
“All these officers here are funded through the Department of Transportation, the Colorado Department of Transportation, overtime, so we are not taking anybody off the street,” Byfield said.
So when out drinking, DUI checkpoint or not, remember there are many different options available around Boulder for getting home safely.
“The good thing about being in Boulder and being downtown is you actually can get people rides,” said Richard Scoffier, general manager of Lazy Dog Sports Bar & Grill.
