DUI checkpoints throughout SoCal over holiday weekend

PACOIMA, Calif. (KABC) -- As the holiday weekend begins there is a warning to drivers- law enforcement won't tolerate drunk drivers. Sobriety checkpoints have been set up across the Southland.

A sobriety checkpoint in Pacoima began Saturday afternoon.

Officers will screen between 800 and 900 cars before the operation ends in Pacoima late Saturday. But the operation is one in nearly a dozen that will be set up this weekend all across Los Angeles as authorities go on the hunt for drunk drivers.

"When it's a holiday weekend people seem to indulge more than they should, maybe drinking and driving," said LAPD Lt. Ron Katona said. "We're out here to get that word out that it's unsafe to do that."

Sobriety checkpoints are one of the key tools in reducing the number of people killed and injured in alcohol-related crashes.

"Officers make contact with individual drivers and if they notice anything that makes them believe that they're possibly impaired, smell of alcohol, bloodshot watery eyes, things of that nature then we ask them to exit the vehicle, " Lt. Katona said.

That's when additional sobriety tests are conducted.

"If we find somebody whose driving over the legal limit, 0.08, blood alcohol level, they'll be arrested tonight and booked into our jail," Lt. Katona said.

In addition to these checkpoints, police will also have saturation patrols Sunday. That means they'll be driving around looking for drunk drivers.

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dui, holiday, lapd, california highway patrol, los angeles news, amy powell

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