Officials in Colorado's Douglas County crack down on drunk driving ahead of New Year's Eve
Ahead of New Year's Eve, Douglas County officials are prepared to crack down on drunk driving with increased patrols, strict penalties and other tools.
"We take a very aggressive and somewhat unique approach to DUI enforcement, and it starts at the very beginning on the road," said District Attorney George Brauchler.
The Douglas County Sheriff's Office says there's been a decrease in DUI arrests this year, but they still see almost one a day.
The agency will have extra patrols out Tuesday through Thursday.
"There's zero tolerance for DUI driving, and we are out in force, and we're going to make arrests," said Douglas County Undersheriff Jason Kennedy.
If impaired drivers don't want to stop, DCSO has a solution.
In July, the agency got a device called a Grappler installed on several vehicles.
"It is deployed off the front of the vehicle. It drops down, wraps around one of the back tires, freezes that tire up, and then there's basically a tow strap, for lack of a better term, that attaches that to the patrol car, wrapped around boom, full stop and very safe," Kennedy said. "We've deployed it many times, and it brings those cars that are not yielding to a stop immediately."
If officers have probable cause to suspect impairment, and drivers refuse to give their blood or breath, the agency will seek a warrant.
"Our response is to say, OK, then we're going to have a judge allow us to take it by force, and we'll go get a warrant to draw that blood, and then we'll go get your blood and we'll prove you guilty," said Brauchler.
Brauchler says his office always pushes for jail time in DUI cases.
"If you get picked up over this holiday season and charged with DUI, go get yourself an attorney. Go pay for the trial now, because we're not going to be giving you plea bargains on those particular cases. That's how serious this is," said Brauchler.
Since the creation of the 23rd Judicial District this year, 681 drunk drivers have been caught and prosecuted with a 94% conviction rate.
Brauchler says a DUI charge can be expensive.
"It's cheaper to Uber. It's cheaper to take a taxi. It's cheaper to get your friend or your spouse or your someone else out of bed to drive you, or just sleep it off where you're at but do not put yourself behind the wheel and get on the road," said Brauchler.
And the ultimate cost of drunk driving, could be a life.
"Driving drunk at any time on our roads is like shooting a bullet straight up into the air. You don't know where it's going to come down, you don't know who it's going to hit, but when it does, it's probably going to kill someone. We treat these seriously because every single one of them carries the potential of serious bodily injury, maiming or death," said Brauchler.
"When someone's drinking and driving, they're endangering the whole public, and that means your community, your friends, your family, your children, your mothers, your fathers, all those people, and we want that to be the deterrent," Kennedy said. "If you've had alcohol and you are intoxicated or you even think you might be, do not drive. Do not drive. And there are tons of ride shares out there. There's all kinds of other ways to get home. Please do that. Do that for your community. Do that for your friends and family."