DWI Checkpoints To Be Held In New Jersey

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and what’s become a holiday ritual will return, once again, to New Jersey:

DWI checkpoints.

So where will they be, or how do the police plan to prevent dangerous driving over the long weekend?

The Monmouth County DWI Task force will set up a DWI checkpoint in Neptune on Friday to detect drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs, police said.

The checkpoint will run from 11 p.m. Friday through 3 a.m. Saturday on Route 33.

Task force members and Neptune police will pull vehicles from the westbound lanes into the Jumping Brook Plaza parking lot to determine driver’s sobriety, according to Brielle Police Chief Michael W. Palmer, the task force coordinator.

The State Police also will deploy a black Chevy Caprice that will blend in with traffic, and attempt to catch what law enforcement have termed “idiot drivers.”

Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato, meanwhile, has announced that his department will bring back its annual countywide DWI checkpoint program.

The program consists of staging numerous checkpoints throughout Ocean County at undisclosed locations.

“The start of prom season and the added volume of summer shore traffic calls for increased vigilance by law enforcement, and that will be the focus over the coming months to keep motorists safe,” Coronato said in a statement.

The program targets also utilizes an addition of two “Drug Recognition Experts” at each checkpoint to detect those under the influence of narcotics, Coronato said.

The checkpoint program, which is funded in part by the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, will be conducted by local police agencies in conjunction with detectives from the Prosecutor’s Office and Sheriff’s Department K-9 Unit.

Within the past three weeks, checkpoints were held on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, and police have indicated that those checkpoints could return to those spots and:

• Eatontown, Hope Road
• Woodbury, Clements Bridge Road
• Cherry Hill, U.S. 30
• Roselle, St. George Avenue

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