According to news reports, nearly two dozen Morris County police departments will begin to crack down on drunk drivers starting today. The concentrated effort focused on intoxicated drivers, which runs through Labor Day, is part of an annual national campaign known as “Over the Limit, Under Arrest.” As an experienced New Jersey DWI defense attorney, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that a percentage of the arrests made during this initiative will involve drivers who do not deserve a drunk driving conviction on their record.
In Morris County, 21 individual police departments will be participating, including Butler, Chester Township, Jefferson, Lincoln Park, Madison, Mendham, Mount Olive, Netcong, Pequannock, Randolph, Riverdale, Rockaway, Washington Township and eight others.
As part of this national effort, which has continued annually since 1999, the Division of Highway Traffic Safety provides federally-funded grants in the amount of $6,000 to each participating police agency for the two-week program.
Municipalities in Morris County, as well as cities and towns across the state, will be conducting drunk driving sobriety checkpoints and so-called “saturation patrols.” According to news reports, more than 200 law enforcement agencies from around New Jersey and also the State Police will be mobilizing to catch individuals operating motor vehicles while under the influence of alcohol (DWI) or drugs (DUI).
Reportedly, the campaign will uses high-visibility police patrols and public education materials, such as banners, posters and mobile display signs to counter drunk driving during the busy, end-of-summer travel season.
Reports state that 165 people were killed on New Jersey highways as a direct result of alcohol-related crashes in 2008. This is 28 percent of the total 591 traffic fatalities reported in the state during all of last year.
21 Morris police departments to crack down on DWI starting tomorrow, DailyRecord.com, August 20, 2009