Redwood City Police to Step Up DUI Checkpoints

Thanks to recent grants received from the state, the Redwood City Police Department (RCPD) says it will be stepping up efforts such as DUI checkpoints and other enforcement measures to help prevent unnecessary deaths and injuries on local roadways.

"The Redwood City Police Department is dedicated to keeping our streets safe through both enforcement and education," the department said in a community bulletin sent out last week.

"DUI checkpoints play an integral part of our efforts to prevent impaired driving and improve the safety of our roadways,” said Police Chief Gamez. "We greatly appreciate the strong support we receive from the California Office of Traffic Safety to fight this dangerous behavior."

The special DUI Checkpoint grant is to assist in efforts to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol- and other drug-related collisions in the community. The grant activities will specifically target impaired driving offenders as well as educating the public on the dangers of impaired driving through the use of DUI/driver’s license checkpoints.

When possible, specially trained officers will be available to evaluate those suspected of drug-impaired driving. 

According to RCPD's statement, drunk and drugged driving are among America’s deadliest crimes. Officers indicate that, in 2010, 791 people were killed and more than 24,000 were injured in alcohol- and drug-impaired crashes in California.

In 2011, Redwood City had no alcohol-related fatalities, and but did have 15 people injured in these types of crashes. RCPD says statistics show that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough.

DUI checkpoints have proven to be the most effective of any of the DUI enforcement strategies, while yielding considerable cost savings of $6 for every $1 spent. 

"DUI checkpoints have been an essential part of the phenomenal reduction in DUI deaths that we witnessed from 2006 to 2010 in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “But since the tragedy of DUIs accounts for nearly one-third of traffic fatalities, Redwood City needs the high visibility enforcement and public awareness that this grant will provide.” 

Funding for this program is from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

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