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Published on Tuesday, October 29, 2002
in the Pensacola News Journal
Law agencies now focus on curbing DUI offenders
More than 275 people were arrested or received traffic citations during a crackdown on bad drivers along U.S. 98.
Local law enforcement officials now will turn their attention to drunken drivers during a DUI checkpoint Saturday night.
Twenty agencies from Pensacola to Apalachicola took part in the second Strike Force 98 operation of the year Friday. Seven agencies in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties arrested 12 people and issued citations to 263 others.
Using a slew of radar guns and unmarked cars, the officers saturated U.S. 98 on Friday, concentrating on the strip running through Gulf Breeze.
"We definitely got the motoring public's awareness with this," said Lt. Tommy Moore, spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol.
A DUI checkpoint was part of the original plan, but wet and slick conditions forced a cancellation.
The officers will regroup and set up the checkpoint Saturday night at the north end of the Bob Sikes Bridge, stopping drivers as they leave Pensacola Beach.
Officials met at the Pensacola Police Department on Monday night to discuss the possibility of increasing such checkpoints as the holiday season approaches.
Local law enforcement officials occasionally have organized large checkpoints for several years, with dozens of officers taking part in each one.
But Sgt. Mark Buckley with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said they will try a new approach - fewer officers doing many more checkpoints.
They will concentrate on areas throughout Northwest Florida that have resulted in many alcohol-related accidents, such as the area surrounding the University of West Florida and isolated pockets of Pace, Milton and Pensacola.
"With fewer officers, we can afford to do two or three a night, we can do them in different locations and we don't necessarily have to do them solely on weekends," Buckley said. "Our main goal is not to arrest DUIs. The goal of the program is to stop all these people from going out and getting hurt."