Police to conduct DUI checkpoints

Costa Mesa police are conducting a number of DUI-related operations this month, department officials said.

Police will launch DUI saturation patrols, where additional officers are patrolling and looking solely for drunk drivers, on Dec. 18 and Dec. 31.

On Saturday, authorities will set up a DUI checkpoint on Harbor Boulevard and Victoria Street from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., followed by another one less than a week later.

On Dec. 17, from 6 to 11 p.m. police will have a checkpoint set up at 17th Street and Raymond Avenue.

The operations come thanks to a state grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.

Since 2007, DUI-related car crashes in Costa Mesa have killed seven people and injured 319 in more than 220 crashes, police said. In that same span, Costa Mesa officers have arrested nearly 3,800 people on suspicion of driving drunk.

—Joseph Serna