Police to Do Away With Holiday Sobriety Checkpoints

Motorists are unlikely to run into sobriety checkpoints this holiday season, but police across Ventura County will be scanning the roadways for drunk drivers nonetheless.

The California Highway Patrol will not staff checkpoints over Christmas or New Year’s weekends. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and Oxnard and Ventura police departments have also decided against the checkpoints, which cost several hundred dollars and tie up a handful of officers.

Instead, the departments will instruct patrol officers to watch vigilantly for drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Some law enforcement officials contend that this approach is more effective than sobriety checkpoints.

Because the checkpoints must, by law, be advertised with posted signs, drunk drivers often evade the officers and cruise into the night, said Sgt. Will Howe of the East Valley Sheriff’s Station. “We’ve found they’re more of a public relations tool.”

In Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, law enforcement departments plan to send out extra patrols to spot drunk drivers and pull them off the roads quickly. Elsewhere, departments will rely on their regular deployments to catch dangerous motorists.

“It will be business as usual--we see no reason to beef up patrols,” Oxnard Police Cmdr. Jaime Skeeters said.

The city’s accident rate usually remains roughly constant throughout the holiday season, he said.

Ventura Police Lt. Steve Bowman said budget cuts eliminated the possibility of sobriety checkpoints, which cost about $800 in overtime.

“We’ll just use existing resources but direct a little extra attention toward looking out for DUI,” Bowman said. “We’re hoping it works--we’ve got our fingers crossed.”