McMinnville Police Department will be conducting a saturation patrol this weekend after several DUI arrests were made last week.
“We focus a lot of our attention for impaired drivers during holiday weekends, but some of our DUIs come from any weekend and any weekday,” said McMinnville Police Department Lt. Mark Mara. “We just don’t do saturation patrols on holidays. We do them whenever we feel there is a need for one. Last week showed us there was a need for another saturation patrol.”
The extra patrol was prompted by a high number of impaired drivers during fair week, says Mara.
“We decided to do another saturated patrol this weekend, because we made several DUI arrests last week,” he said. “I’m sure the fair had something to do with the increased number of individuals driving impaired. However, we don’t care why it’s happening. We just need to stop it. We decided to step up our patrol this weekend and try to make the streets safer for everyone.”
The department will be helping out with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which will be conducting a seatbelt checkpoint in Warren County on Friday on US70S. The Highway Patrol has found seatbelt checkpoints to be an effective means of enforcing seatbelt and child restraint laws of Tennessee while ensuring the protection of all motorists.
McMinnville Police Department will continue holding saturation patrols during holidays and when needed. The department receives funding for the saturation patrols from the Tennessee Governor’s Highway Safety Office.