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 White Plains, NY - The holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is one of the deadliest and most dangerous times on America’s roadways due to an increase in drunk and drugged driving. In an effort to get impaired drivers off the roads, Westchester County police are joining with officers from seven others agencies on Friday night to conduct multiple – and constantly shifting – sobriety checkpoints.
Officers from a multi-agency Task Force will establish more than 20 mobile sobriety checkpoints throughout the night in municipalities in southern Westchester that border New York City. Teams of officers working in Yonkers, Mount Vernon and Pelham Manor and on Westchester parkways will regularly move the locations of the checkpoints throughout the night.
“For those who think they can avoid our checkpoints by receiving cell phone calls or text messages, think again. Our officers will regularly be moving their locations and will not remain in a fixed position,” Public Safety Commissioner Thomas Belfiore said.
Agencies participating in Operation Border Watch are: New York State Police, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority PD, Yonkers PD, Mount Vernon PD, Pelham Manor PD, Westchester County Probation Department and the Westchester County Public Safety Emergency Force.
“I join Yonkers Police Commissioner Hartnett, Mount Vernon Commissioner Chong and Pelham Manor Chief of Police Mosiello in declaring that we will do everything in our power to ensure that our roadways are safe from impaired drivers,” Belfiore said. “We have put together a joint operation along with the state police, MTA police and Probation Department to remove as many drunk and drugged drivers on this night as possible and we will continue to do so throughout the holiday season,” he added.
More than 50 officers will be committed to this operation, which will run into early Saturday morning. After this initial operation, police departments throughout Westchester County will continue to emphasize impaired driving enforcement through New Year’s Day.
“The message is not new to Westchester County residents: violators will be arrested, and they will face jail time, loss of driver’s license, higher insurance rates, attorney fees, court costs, fines, car towing expense and lost work time, not to mention the embarrassment of being arrested,” said County Executive Andy Spano. “It makes much more sense to plan ahead and use a designated driver or call a cab.”
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