CHP Begins Maximum Enforcement Patrol On Drivers Who Drink

The California Highway Patrol will be ramping up patrols over the holiday weekend for a two-day “maximum enforcement period,” during which all available officers hit the streets looking people driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The New Year’s MEP gets under way at 6 p.m. Friday and concludes shortly after midnight Monday.

During last year’s crackdown, 36 people were arrested on suspicion of DUI on roads and highways in the Riverside area, according to the CHP. There were 41 collisions, one of them fatal.

The CHP’s anti-DUI campaign coincides with the Riverside County Avoid the 30 task force’s two-week holiday crackdown. The task force — named for the number of law enforcement agencies that participate — is conducting sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols countywide through Monday.