DUI operations yield arrests
GLENDALE — Nearly two dozen people were arrested during the holiday weekend in two operations aimed at cracking down on drunk-driving and traffic violations, police said.
Officials from San Marino, South Pasadena, Los Angeles and Burbank assisted in the two operations Friday and Saturday night throughout the city looking for drunk drivers.
While both activities yielded several arrests, Glendale Police Lt. Carl Povilaitis said more work needs to be done to reduce the number of DUI-related offenses.
“It’s unfortunate that some people still haven’t gotten the message that if you are going to drink, don’t drive,” he said. “The only thing I would consider more successful is if we put out the saturation patrols and we didn’t find any drunk drivers because they weren’t there, but that’s not the reality of the situation.”
At Friday’s checkpoint on Brand Boulevard and Cerritos Avenue, police screened 719 vehicles and performed 25 field sobriety tests on motorists, Sgt. Dennis Smith said.
Of the 25 tests performed, three motorists were arrested on suspicion of being intoxicated, he said. Another nine motorists were arrested on suspicion of driving without a license or a revoked driver’s license, and 11 vehicles were towed, police said.
Police arrested 33 motorists from Jan.1 to Dec.6, 2009, within a mile of the Brand-Cerritos intersection, Smith said.
On Saturday, police conducted a saturation patrol in which they roamed Glendale streets looking for intoxicated drivers.
Police arrested four drunk drivers and administered 17 field sobriety tests, Smith said. They stopped 59 vehicles and impounded four.
Another five motorists were arrested on suspicion of driving without a driver’s license or with a revoked license, he said.
During the operation, a police officer stopped a vehicle in Atwater Village with five occupants, one of whom had a loaded handgun.
The gun’s owner, a 16-year-old alleged North Hollywood gang member, was arrested, and the weapon was seized.
The boy’s mother was driving the vehicle and arrested on suspicion of driving with a suspended or revoked driver’s license, Smith added.