Sheriff's Department conducts sobriety checkpoint
The checkpoint produced a 15 percent arrest rate.
Published April 13, 2010
About 110 cars were stopped during a sobriety checkpoint conducted by the Boone County Sheriff's Department this weekend. The checkpoint resulted in 16 arrests and two summons for failure to register a motor vehicle.
Sheriff's Department Major Tom Reddin said that number of arrests is considered high.
"That's a pretty significant checkpoint," Reddin said. "You've got 16 arrests in total, not including the two summonses, and that's 15 percent. When you're making arrests in 15 percent of the vehicles you check, that's a very active situation."
The department announced it would be conducting a checkpoint between April 5 and April 11 in a news release issued before the checkpoint took place. The department planned on beginning the checkpoint in late evening hours of the determined day and continuing through the early morning hours the following day.
A grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation Division of Highway Safety funded the checkpoint, the news release stated.
According to a Sheriff's Department release issued after the checkpoint, the operation took place Saturday between midnight and 2:30 a.m. on the 3600 block of Vawter School Road. Reddin said the locations for sobriety checkpoints are always based on a history of crashes or prior driving while intoxicated arrests.
During the 2.5-hour operation, officers made one felony and six misdemeanor arrests for driving while intoxicated, one arrest for driving with a suspended or revoked license, eight arrests for adult liquor law violations and issued two summonses for failure to register a motor vehicle, the news release stated.
The Hallsville Police Department, Columbia Police Department and MU Police Department all assisted in the checkpoint by providing officers, the news release stated. Reddin said the Boone County Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving also offered support.
"They will often go out on checkpoints and maybe provide food and water to officers and offer a supportive role," Reddin said.
During the last sobriety enforcement operation in January, the Sheriff's Department conducted 18 traffic stops and checked about 50 vehicles at the sobriety checkpoint. That operation resulted in 10 arrests, one citation and about 22 verbal warnings for various violations, a January news release stated.