Sheriff's department announces plan for weekend sobriety checkpoint
The Boone County Sheriff’s Department announced plans to conduct a Sobriety Checkpoint in Boone County this weekend. During the sobriety checks, the sheriff's department stops motorists and checks to see if drivers are intoxicated or are breaking the law in any other way, including possessing drugs or using an invalid license.
“The main goal is to find and identify drivers who are intoxicated and get them off the roadway,” Boone County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Brian Leer said.
The sheriff’s department does not disclose where or when the checks will occur, other than it will be during the late evening hours and the early morning hours of the following day. Leer said that the sobriety checks are held about six times throughout the year.
“Normally we’ll end up with several impaired drivers,” Leer said. “We might have the occasional motorist that comes through that smells of marijuana.”
The sheriff's department chooses spots to do the sobriety checks based on statistics indicating those areas as high in traffic safety issues.
Past sobriety checkpoints have been held near The Reserve and Campus Lodge student apartment complexes.
“The main thing is just to get the drunks off the roadway,” Leer said. “It might get them to think twice about drinking and driving in the first place. We never know what could have happened had we not caught that intoxicated driver. It’s kind of hard to tell what we may have prevented, but we know that in taking those drivers off the road, we’re making a difference.”