The following is from a Pierce County press release:
Police made over 198 DUI arrests in King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties last weekend over the Cinco de Mayo holiday. Nearly eighty percent of the arrests were made in King and Pierce Counties.
Over 50 officers, deputies and troopers participated in the special emphasis patrol on Saturday, May 4 organized by county-based DUI and traffic safety task forces. The extra patrols tripled the number of regularly scheduled officers patrolling targeted city, county and state roads where the highest number of impaired driving fatalities occur.
Additionally, as part of a Home Safe Bar program, officers, liquor control enforcement officers and the parents of a DUI victim, made educational visits to an estimated 45 bars and restaurants to remind bar owners and staff to observe alcohol laws during a holiday known for its stiff margaritas and drink-a-thons.
Several of these same bars were re-contacted by police chiefs and other law enforcement and liquor control board command staff whenever officers arrested drivers for DUI who said they’d been drinking at a specific bar.
In Tacoma, officers intercepted and arrested a woman for DUI after she nearly crashed her car into another vehicle downtown. The local Home Safe Bar Team subsequently contacted the bar’s bartender and manager to report the arrest, the driver’s blood alcohol level, and the number of impaired drivers the bar had been reported to serve in the last year. Additionally, the team reviewed responsible alcohol service protocols with bar personnel.
Throughout the three counties, bar teams additionally passed out and encouraged drinkers to use Clickit-2-Ride cards which, when scanned with a cell phone, put callers directly in contact with local taxi companies.
The special holiday enforcement was supported by traffic safety task forces and local, county and state law-enforcement agencies in all three counties, as well as the Washington Traffic Safety Commission and leaders from the King County Hispanic community.
