Fourth of July countywide anti-dui campaign begins Wednesday

Law enforcement agencies throughout Riverside Countywill be ramping up patrols today and through the weekend to nab drunken anddrug-impaired drivers as part of a Fourth of July holiday crackdown.

The county’s “Avoid the 30” anti-DUI campaign — named for the numberof police agencies involved — will begin at 6 p.m. and conclude at 11:59 p.m.Sunday.

More than two-dozen saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints areplanned countywide, the first operation tonight in Hemet.

During its 2012 Fourth of July crackdown, the Avoid the 30 task forcenetted 60 DUI suspects. The campaign was only two days long becauseIndependence Day fell in midweek.

The Avoid campaign will coincide with the California Highway Patrol’sfive-day “maximum enforcement period,” during which all available officersare deployed to catch intoxicated motorists, speeders and other scofflaws.