Drunken Driving Arrests Up Significantly, County Sheriff's Office Reports

Police have made a "significant number of DUI arrests" on the first day of an anti-drunken driving campaign for the four-day Independence Day  weekend, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said Saturday.

Both local routine traffic enforcement and special Avoid the 13 DUI deployments overnight in Santa Clara County resulted in the arrest of 17 individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, said Sgt. Rick Sung, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

These arrests, made among the 15 agencies participating in the anti-drunken driving campaign, took place in the 24-hour period from midnight Friday, July 1 to midnight just before July 2, Sung said.

In 2010, officers made 12 DUI arrests, in the same 24-hour period. The figures from Friday night are partial reports, and could rise, Sung noted.

There were no DUI fatalities or crashes Friday.

Enforcement will continue Saturday through Monday nights, with extra DUI Saturation Patrols will be deployed in the cities of Milpitas, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Altos Hills, and San Jose, Sung said.

Funding that pays for the overtime shifts for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Here is the breakdown by city, as known Saturday morning:

• MOUNTAIN VIEW POLICE: 3
• PALO ALTO POLICE: 1
• SAN JOSE POLICE: 4
• SANTA CLARA POLICE: 1
• SC SHERIFF: 2
• SUNNYVALE POLICE: 2
• SAN JOSE CHP: 4

Note: The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, which covers Cupertino, Saratoga and Los Altos Hills, did not disclose details about the location of the two arrests on Friday. The San Jose CHP, which covers a wide area south of Mountain View and north of Gilroy, also did not report specific locations.