LAPD to Set Up DUI Checkpoints This Weekend

Los Angeles police say they will be putting extra officers on the streets to look for drunken drivers starting Thursday, and will also be checking drivers to make sure they are sober and properly licensed at checkpoint operations throughout the weekend.

Near Encino and Tarzana, the Los Angeles Police Department will have a drunken driving/license checkpoint on Sherman Way between Sepulveda Boulevard and Orion Avenue in Van Nuys beginning about 8 p.m. Saturday.

Elsewhere in the city, LAPD's Olympic Station will start saturation patrols at 6 p.m. Thursday, putting extra officers on the streets to specifically look for drunken drivers, according to Officer Don Inman. That operation should end about 2 a.m. on Friday.

A checkpoint will be operated on Vermont Avenue between Pico Boulevard and 12th Street in the Pico-Union district from about 7 p.m. on Friday until about 3 a.m. on Saturday.

"Over the course of the past year, DUI-related collision have claimed 12 lives and injured 825 friends and neighbors in Los Angeles," Lt. Ron Katona of the Traffic Coordination Section said.

Another checkpoint will be operated on Manchester Avenue between Hoover and Figueroa streets in South Los Angeles beginning about 8 p.m. on Friday.

Officers assigned to the Hollenbeck Station will begin a saturation patrol on the city's Eastside about 8 p.m. on Sunday.

The checkpoints and patrols are financed by grants administered by the state Office of Traffic Safety.

Under a relatively new LAPD policy, people found driving without valid licenses may be allowed to let a licensed driver take the vehicle, instead of having it towed and impounded. Drivers who have their vehicles towed may be eligible to pick them up from a police impound lot as early as the next day, rather than 30 days.