A grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety will allow the Santa Monica Police Department to conduct a DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint next Friday, June 14.
The SMPD never discloses the location in advance, but it will be held within city limits.
The checkpoint is part of an ongoing campaign to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes.
Officers will be contacting drivers passing through the checkpoint looking for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment.
Drivers caught driving impaired can expect jail, license suspension, and insurance increases; as well as fines, fees, DUI classes, court probation and other expenses that can exceed $10,000.
According to SMPD Lieutenant Jay Trisler, traffic collisions involving impaired drivers/riders were involved in 91 collisions in the past year in Santa Monica, killing three people and injuring 28 people.
Funding for this operation is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The SMPD’s last checkpoint gained national coverage after NBC “Sunday Night Football” announcer Al Michaels was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor DUI April 19 near a Santa Monica DUI checkpoint in the 1800 block of Lincoln Boulevard at about 10 pm.
He spent a little more than five hours in the Santa Monica City Jail before he was released on his own recognizance the next day.
Michaels is scheduled to appear at Los Angeles Municipal Court to face the DUI charge at 8:30 a.m. on June 26.
