Montgomery County police have joined forces with other police agencies to crack down on alcohol-related offenses during the holidays through a program that has made more than 200 driving-under-the-influence arrests since mid-November.
The Montgomery County Police Alcohol Holiday Task Force will be in action through Jan. 5, enforcing traffic laws in high-collision areas, conducting sobriety checkpoints and directing compliance checks of businesses with alcohol licenses.
The force is made up of members of Alcohol Initiatives Section along with officers from the municipal departments in Rockville, Takoma Park and Gaithersburg, the Maryland-National Capital Park Police Department, state police and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
There are 25 full-time officers and several part-time participants on the force, supervisor Sgt. Al Dzenkowski said.
“This is a really motivated group I’ve got this year,” Dzenkowski said. “They’re all clicking together and hitting the ground running.”
From Thanksgiving to New Year’s there are four times as many alcohol-related collisions and fatalities nationwide, Dzenkowski said.
Through five weeks, the task force has made 208 DUI arrests. This total does not include arrests made by other patrol officers in the performance of their duties.
The force has already surpassed the total of DUI arrests during the eight weeks the force was operational in 2017, Dzenkowski said.
This year’s group posed with a picture of Officer Noah Leotta before undertaking their duties. Leotta was working for the task force in 2015 when he was killed by a drunk driver.
“It’s just an extra reminder that we’re out here too,” Dzenkowski said. “We’re all trying to get home to our families as well.”
Maryland State Police will also increase its enforcement between Christmas and New Year’s, with troopers from each of the 23 barracks focusing efforts on impaired and distracted driving, among other violations, police said.
Additional troopers will be working overtime assignments during this week, using a variety of patrol initiatives to keep traffic flowing and respond quickly to highway incidents.
State police reported 6,689 DUI arrests through Nov. 30, compared to 6,508 over the same period in 2017.
Distracted driving violations have decreased over that span, from 16,934 citations and 19,334 warnings in 2017 to 15,194 citations and 17,638 warnings in 2018.
