Montgomery County police and other local police agencies are preparing to ramp up their enforcement of alcohol-related violations for the holiday season.
The “Holiday Alcohol Task Force” will include officers from the county police department’s Alcohol Initiatives Section, regular patrol officers in the county’s six police districts, officers from municipal police departments in Gaithersburg and Takoma Park, Maryland State Police officers and Maryland-National Capital Park Police officers.
The task force began Nov. 15, according to a county police press release Friday, and will continue until Jan. 9.
It will include sobriety checkpoints at locations where collision data shows drivers “are most at risk for encountering impaired drivers,” police said. Officers will also use underage volunteers who will try to buy alcohol at restaurants and bars using their real underage driver’s licenses.
Police said undercover plain clothes officers will monitor retail beer and wine stores “ensuring that shopkeepers are not selling alcohol to minors and also ensuring that minors are not using false identification or using other means to buy alcohol.”
The department is also asking those with information on a planned underage drinking party to call the Alcohol Initiatives Section at 240-773-6610. Tipsters will be able to leave a message and remain anonymous, police said.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health, has said two to three times more people die in alcohol-related crashes during the winter holiday season than during the rest of the year.
