Roundup of Drivers Using Alcohol or Drugs Nets 120

A team of 100 officers arrested 120 people on suspicion of driving under the influence this weekend in the first joint-agency roundup conducted by the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles Police Department in South Los Angeles.

Using what police call the Immediate Booking and Release System (IBARS), the officers patrolled 60 square miles of surface streets and freeways looking for drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs, said Los Angeles Police Lt. John O’Connell. The operation was conducted between 7:15 p.m. Friday to 4:15 a.m. Saturday and repeated last night, O’Connell said.

“There were several periods (Friday night) when all three Breathalyzer machines had suspects waiting in line to be tested,” O’Connell said.

Arrested drivers were processed under the Police Department’s 7-month-old mobile IBARS program, which operates out of two 35-foot buses. The mobile units serve as booking offices and holding centers for suspects who then are released to relatives or friends. The program is designed to minimize the time an officer spends processing suspected drunk drivers.

“Theoretically, we can get someone in and out of IBARS and the officer back on the street within a half hour,” the lieutenant said.

The command post this weekend was set up at Mt. Carmel Park, four blocks south of a where a drunk driver last week crashed his speeding car into another vehicle, killing a man and three children.