Published October 13. 2009 05:00PM
A program that has led to more than 2,400 arrests for driving under the influence during the past 12 months will continue for another year, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski said.
"The Checkpoint Strikeforce Initiative was instituted last October as a one-year program to reduce crashes, prevent injuries and save lives by identifying and arresting impaired drivers on our roads," Pawlowski said. "The results achieved to date make it worthwhile to continue the program."Under the initiative, each of the 15 regional state police troops conducts a random sobriety checkpoint within its troop area on most weekends. In the event of inclement weather, the troop conducts roving DUI patrols rather than a checkpoint.Pawlowski said troopers made 1,574 DUI arrests as the direct result of checkpoints and 868 DUI arrests as the result of roving patrols conducted under the initiative.He said the checkpoint locations are determined by commanders based on up-to-date crash data collected by the department's Prophecy computer system and other sources."We focus our attention on areas that have experienced a high number of DUI-related crashes," said Pawlowski, who noted that state police made a record 16,156 DUI arrests in 2008.He said the enforcement effort is supported by federal funding obtained through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.For more information, visit
www.psp.state.pa.us or call (717) 783-5556.Among the DUI arrests made under the first year of the Checkpoint Strikeforce Initiative include: Troop L (Berks, Lebanon and Schuylkill counties), 111 arrests; Troop M (Bucks, Lehigh and Northampton counties), 181 arrests; Troop N (Carbon, Columbia, Monroe and part of Luzerne counties), 108 arrests.