St. Louis area police have announced that there will be enhanced DWI enforcement over the July 4th holiday weekend. Every year the police focus on drunk driving arrests around certain holidays, and with nice weather and good barbeques the 4th of July is always one of those holidays. St. Louis area drivers can expect checkpoints, but drivers can also expect police officers to take a more vigiliant approach towards possible impaired drivers over the long weekend.
The Wentzville Police Department in St. Charles County has already announced drunk driving enforecement for the holiday weekend. This enforcement will include sobriety checkpoints and “DWI saturation patrols” that will take place from July 3rd through July 7th.
Concern About Unlawful Arrests
It is concerning when law enforcement states openly that they will be focusing on drunk driving enforcement. The concern is that any time someone begins to look specifically for something he will see it whether it is really there or not. Around big holidays like the 4th of July there is a greater likelihood of an unlawful arrest for drunk driving due to law enforcement’s specific focus. After all, police departments like to brag after a holiday weekend about how many arrests resulted from these checkpoints and saturation patrols. The only way law enforcement can get to big arrest numbers is to arrest a lot of people, and any time a lot of people are arrested there is a good chance that a mistake was made and an innocent person has been unlawfully arrested.
Possible Consequences
The Wentzville Police Department haas included a list of drunk driving consequences in a recent news article. These consquences include:
- Jail Time
- Driver’s License Suspension or Revocation
- Being Sentenced to Use Ignition Interlock
- Rising Insurance Rates
- Financial Considerations such as attorneys fees, court costs, lost time at work and possible loss of job or job prospects
Please be aware of this enhanced drunk driving enforcement of the long holiday weekend. If pulled over for suspicion of drunk driving please read our page on What To Do If Pulled Over For DWI.Source: Wentzville Patch, “Wentzville Police Planning Drunk Driving Crackdown Over July 4th Holiday,” Tamara Duncan, June 23, 2013.