Ingham County law enforcement agencies will continue teaming up this year to target drunken drivers.
Officers from the Ingham County Sheriff’s Office and the East Lansing, Lansing and Meridian Township police departments will work overtime on selected nights for “Operation Nightcap.” The program aims to saturate specific areas with patrols to find drunken drivers.
The agencies tend to target holidays and weekends. The first county patrol of the year was last weekend. Police made 25 stops Saturday night, resulting in three arrests - two for driving under the influence of alcohol and one for driving on a suspended license.
“We’ll throw in a day of the week too because people drink and drive every night,” Ingham County Sgt. Jim Morrall said .
Nearly 62,000 people were arrested statewide for drunken driving (OUIL) in 1999, Morrall said. There were 484 alcohol-related fatal accidents.
“There’s more value in Operation Nightcap in educating party-goers that if they choose to drink they shouldn’t drive,” Lansing police Lt. Ray Hall said.
Hall said Lansing police heavily patrolled the area on New Year’s Eve. Officers made six arrests before midnight, but did not make any arrests for drunken driving in the early morning hours.
The four agencies received grants worth nearly $40,000 to pay for the camp’aign. The Michigan State Police, which also takes part in Operation Nightcap, will spend nearly $228,000 this year, said State Police Sgt. Jill Bennett.
State police agencies receive the federal grant money based on alcohol-related crash rates for their area.
Meridian Township police have taken part in Operation Nightcap and similar programs for nearly seven years. Officers made three traffic stops and arrested two people for drunken driving during its last Operation Nightcap campaign, Meridian Township Lt. Tom Couling said.
The department usually dedicates two officers to traffic patrols during Operation Nightcap.
“The reality of it is there are a lot of drunk drivers out there and we need to carry out strict enforcement of OUIL laws,” he said.
Couling also emphasized the impact the program has as a deterrent.
“It’s my belief that every time you arrest one drunken driver, you’ve impacted friends, relatives and others,” he said.
