Checkpoints, patrols to monitor sobriety

December 15, 2006

A major effort to prevent alcohol-related accidents and underage drinking over the holidays kicks off tonight with one of the biggest countywide law enforcement operations ever amassed.

Operation Full Throttle runs through Jan. 5 and involves as many as 300 police officers, sheriff's deputies, prosecutors, agents and other officials.
The program, coordinated by the San Diego Police Department, is being financed in large part by a $1.1 million grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety.

The operation will include sobriety checkpoints, roving drunken-driving patrols, underage decoys and enforcement of social host and alcohol sales laws, said San Diego police Officer Mark McCullough of the traffic division.

“This is the first time we have coordinated an effort of this magnitude,” McCullough said. In the past, agencies largely worked on their own during holidays, sometimes at cross purposes, he said.

Over this holiday period, law enforcement will be manning up to six operations through the region on particular nights, often the most dangerous time of the year for alcohol-related deaths.

Statewide over an eight-day holiday period in 2004, the last year in which statistics were available, 83 people were killed and 4,365 were injured in alcohol-related deaths.

In San Diego County, 18 people died during that same period.

Operation Full Throttle has a two-fold purpose: education and enforcement, said Chris Cochran, marketing and public affairs manager for the traffic safety in Sacramento.

“We want people to think twice if they plan to drink and drive,” Cochran said. “If you do, we will be all over you.”

The effort has aside benefit as far as the San Diego Police Department is concerned. The police force, which is about 200 officers short, will have help.

For instance, officers from several agencies may operate a sobriety checkpoint in the city limits. The same pooling would hold true for other jurisdictions.

The effort also includes enforcement of so-called house party laws that target people who have gatherings where underage drinking occurs.

The cities of San Diego, San Marcos, La Mesa, and the county of San Diego recently strengthened their social host laws, which can cost violators thousands of dollars in fines and assessments.