Holiday police patrols targeting drunk and drugged drivers in Montgomery County made 323 arrests in eight weeks – 100 more than the previous year’s safety campaign.
The arrests were a three-year high for the Montgomery County Police Alcohol Holiday Task Force, a group of 25 full-time officers from seven departments that began the eight-week enforcement Nov. 14.
Officers were assigned to patrol high-collision areas along, set up sobriety checkpoints and made compliance checks at local businesses.
The final tally did not include driving-under-the-influence arrests made by officers on regular patrol during the two months the task force was active.
Increased manpower and proficiency along with better weather conditions contributed to the bump in arrests, Montgomery County Police supervisor Sgt. Al Dzenkowski said.
Dzenkowski also cited a greater focus on troubled areas in the county.
“They were more efficient this year,” Dzenkowski said. “We did a lot more targeted enforcement in the areas that have high numbers of collisions with alcohol involved. We really hit those spots hard, that’s where we pulled most of our people from.”
The force surpassed its 2017 DUI arrest totals in its first five weeks.
“We’ll never find every one of them,” Dzenkowski said. “The fact that we didn’t have any [fatal accidents] during the time we were out working really goes to show how hard they were working and how effective they were.”
Maryland State Police also increased efforts to curtail alcohol-related offenses over the holiday season, and arrests from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day decreased in 2018 compared to 2017 totals.
State police made 171 DUI arrests, 69 criminal arrests and 36 drug-related arrests in 2018 after making 185 DUI arrests, 82 criminal arrests and 45 drug-related arrests over the same span in 2017.
County police encouraged residents to assist with alcohol-related crime through the year by designating a sober driver, using ride-share services and calling 911 if observing an impaired driver.
