St. Patrick's Day Weekend Brings Heightened Focus on DUI Enforcement

KENDALL — With St. Patrick's Day weekend upon us, police will be on high alert for drunk or impaired drivers so you might want to plan for a way home before you head out.

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Miami-Dade police set up their largest DUI checkpoint of the year on Friday night at SW 88 Street at 125 Avenue. Officers had stopped more than 100 cars and made several arrests after only a couple of hours when Patched visited.

Police said they will be on high alert all weekend long for the telltale signs that someone has had too much to drink.

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"The swerving, stopped at green lights — and the light is obviously green, people asleep behind the wheel," explained Detective Robin Pinkard of the Miami-Dade Police Department as officers from Miami, Miami-Dade County, North Miami Beach and the Florida Highway Patrol waved down a steady stream of cars on Friday night based on a predetermined formula.

When Patch visited the checkpoint around 10 p.m., police were in the process of towing someone's vehicle.

Other motorists didn't have a problem.

"My husband is a police officer," acknowledged one woman with a smile as she and her eight-year-old son, Derek, were waved through the checkpoint after answering a few questions and showing her driver's license.

Despite having a husband in law enforcement, she said she had no idea the checkpoint was going to be there when she left her home.

"It was easy. But I had no idea," she said.

"It's like a lottery," added Sarah, another woman who also had an eight-year-old in her car. "For me it was okay."

Police were not accepting any blarney at the checkpoint, which ran from 7:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.
The multi-agency checkpoint was organized by the Miami-Dade Police Department's Special Patrol Bureau Motorcycle Unit under a Florida Department of Transportation grant initiative.

Unlike the rolling saturation patrols that are set up each weekend, DUI checkpoints operate in a fixed location for a set number of hours. Vehicles are pulled over based on a formula that might be as simple as selecting 15 consecutive vehicles after each 10 minute period.

"It's a big operation. It scares people and it makes people aware that we are out there, that we are paying attention," said Pinkard. "DUI doesn't only affect the people who are DUI. It affects families. A lot of accidents occur where families are injured and sometimes even killed."

Pinkard said that that a number of bars offer ride services to patrons who have had too much to drink and police are also seeing some insurance companies making similar offers to their customers along with discounted rates on ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber.

"St. Patrick's day is known to be one of the days that a lot of people do go out to celebrate and it’s also a time that we do remind people that if you do drink, you need to drink responsibly. Make sure you have a designated driver or use a car service," Pinkard cautioned.

Photos by Paul Scicchitano