South Bay Police Unite to Fight Drunk Driving

Officers from six South Bay law enforcement agencies are teaming up for the first time to staff roadside checkpoints designed to get drunk drivers off the roads during the holiday season.

Checkpoints have been used before in the South Bay but never with the coordinated participation of so many police agencies.

Set up in El Segundo, Gardena and Inglewood, the checkpoints will be run by officers from the South Los Angeles California Highway Patrol, the Lennox sheriff’s station and El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne and Inglewood.

“Someone just came up with the idea,” said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Roger Fuller. “It shows the united front against the drunk driver.”

El Segundo police Sgt. Mike Brumley, who is in charge of coordinating the checkpoint program, said that individual police stations do not have the personnel to conduct checkpoints on their own. “So we combined forces. It’s not a punitive thing. It’s to make the drivers aware of their drinking and driving,” he said.

More Arrests Predicted

CHP officer Rich Richards predicted that the program would lead to more arrests and that publicity about the checkpoints would deter drivers from drinking.

The number of drunk drivers arrested at South Bay checkpoints during previous holiday seasons was not available.

Checkpoints will be set up Dec. 22, 23 and 30 between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. The task force will operate from Dec. 19 through Dec. 31. The locations have not been announced.

Checkpoints were halted in October, 1986, when their constitutionality was challenged before the state Supreme Court, but were resumed after a favorable ruling last November. Since then, the CHP has set up 133 checkpoints around the state and arrested 1,041 suspected drunk drivers at them.

In addition to the checkpoints, roving teams of South Bay police officers will continue a 5-year-old program of patrolling for people driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Wide Patrols

The patrols include officers from the same agencies taking a role in the checkpoint program, plus officers from Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach.

In the South Bay, the roving teams made 177 arrests last year during the holiday season, 160 of which were on suspicion of drunk driving, Richards said. In 1986, the patrols made 149 arrests, 121 of which were for suspected drunk driving.

Gardena police Lt. John Fodar said drunk driving is becoming more recognizable to the public as a major cause of traffic accidents.

“Everybody is becoming more sensitive to the issue of drunk driving. Before it was seen as sort of an acceptable practice. In recent years, people have become aware that it’s obviously a real problem,” he said.