Community Corner
Police to Hold DUI Checkpoint Before July 4th Holiday
Officers will check for alcohol, seatbelt compliance and use of child safety seats.
The Fourth of July falls on a Wednesday this year, but the Howard County Police Department is getting ready for early celebrations.
In addition to ramping up patrols on July 4th, police will set up a sobriety checkpoint somewhere in the county during the weekend, police said in a statement Thursday. Police will be in marked and unmarked vehicles in a setting with lights and signage.
While the department did not say where the checkpoint would be, it did say what officers will be looking for:
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- Driving under the influence of alcohol
- Failure to wear seat belts
- Lack of child safety seats
The checkpoint is partially funded by a grant from the Maryland Highway Safety Office and falls under the Checkpoint Strikeforce, a multi-state initiative to take impaired drivers off the roads.
In Howard County, alcohol was involved in 25 percent of fatal crashes last year, according to the Howard County Police Department, which arrested 1,391 people for driving under the influence in 2011.
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