DUI arrests in Arizona up 13 percent during 2018 holiday season
Dec 26, 2018, 3:56 PM | Updated: Dec 27, 2018, 4:06 pm
(Pexels Photo)
(Pexels Photo)
PHOENIX – More officers and deputies have been patrolling Arizona’s roads this holiday season than last year, and they’ve been making more DUI arrests.
According to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, task forces across the state made 1,926 DUI arrests from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
That’s an increase of 13 percent from the same period in 2017, when there were 1,705 DUI arrests.
The 12,187 law enforcement personnel participating in DUI task forces made 53,154 traffic stops this holiday season.
Both of those figures were big jumps from 2017. The number of personnel went up by 27 percent, and the number of stops increased by 17 percent.
The data wasn’t all negative. Officers contacted 18 percent more designated drivers than last year and wrote 39 percent fewer citations for underage drinking.
However, there was a sharp rise in seat belt citations, from 976 in 2017 to 1,324 this year, an increase of 36 percent.
