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Metro-area DWI crackdown begins

More officers from many agencies will be on patrol in Hennepin and Ramsey counties all summer.

By Staff and News Services

Last update: June 29, 2006 - 1:27 AM

Drunken drivers in the Twin Cities should count on reduced odds of escaping apprehension this summer as law enforcement agencies conduct another summerlong crackdown in Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

Statewide, the number of arrests reached an all-time high last year, fueled by increased enforcement and a lowering of the legal standard for drunken driving.

Law enforcement officers caught 36,870 people driving while intoxicated in 2005, and they're arresting drunken drivers at a pace that could top that this year, said Jean Ryan, coordinator of the impaired-driving program at the Department of Public Safety.

As of June 1, the department had recorded 15,343 drunken-driving arrests this year, but Ryan said the statistic lags the actual number of arrests because data aren't always reported immediately.

The tougher drunken-driving standard -- 0.08 percent blood-alcohol concentration instead of the old 0.10 percent -- can take part of the credit. A total of 1,501 drivers were arrested with blood-alcohol levels of 0.08 or 0.09 percent last year. The 0.08 law took effect Aug. 1, 2005, so it was only enforced for part of the year.

But Ryan emphasized that stepped-up enforcement was just as important as the new law.

On Wednesday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and dozens of police officers from more than 40 Twin Cities-area law enforcement agencies assembled on the front lawn of the State Capitol to announce the summerlong effort in Hennepin and Ramsey counties. State Patrol Chief Mark Dunaski said it would be the most comprehensive state campaign against drunken driving.

Operation NightCAP, funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will allow city, county and state enforcement agencies to dedicate an additional 4,500 hours to a "concentrated and sustained" effort to arrest impaired drivers, Pawlenty said.

The program last summer resulted in the arrests of 551 impaired drivers and citations to 3,400 other drivers for traffic- and equipment-related offenses, officials said. From 2001 through 2005, the two counties had a total of almost 50,000 drunken-driving arrests.

NightCAP and the concept of "saturation patrolling" was introduced in the late 1990s in response to judicial rulings against the tactic of stopping all traffic at checkpoints, said Lt. Mark Peterson, a spokesman for the patrol.

Federal funding amounts to about $1 million a year. NightCAP began June 16, and there have already been an additional 163 arrests, Peterson said.

But despite the increased arrests last year, the number of deaths resulting from drunken drivers went up to 197 in 2005, from a low of 177 in 2004. Some public safety officials attributed a significant drop in 2004 fatalities to the tougher drunken-driving standard, which was passed by the Legislature that year. Many people thought it became law immediately, though it didn't.