Memorial weekend’s saturated patrol by McMinnville Police Department resulted in one arrest and 27 tickets, as well as 34 warnings for moving and non-moving violations.
“It was a very successful saturation patrol,” said McMinnville Police Lt. Mark Mara. “We had no accidents related to DUIs, but we did have one DUI arrest made during the patrol. We were able to get that individual off the streets. Thank goodness, after Friday morning’s tragedy, we don’t want any more fatalities.”
The department had four additional officers patrolling the streets over the weekend.
“It’s like having an additional shift on the streets,” said Mara. “These officers do not respond to calls. Their only job is to look for bad drivers. That is why the effort is so effective.”
Saturation patrols do receive criticism from the public about its “actual” goal of giving tickets. Mara says there is only one goal, that being to make streets safer for everyone.
“I think some people misunderstand what these patrols are about,” said Mara. “It isn’t our goal to hand out as many tickets as we can in one weekend. We gave out more warnings than tickets. Our goal is to look for drunk drivers and make the streets safer for everyone.”
The department worked in conjunction with Tennessee Highway Patrol. Numbers of tickets and warnings give by THP are unknown.