Extra DWI Enforcement Campaign Starts Tomorrow
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Minnesota is expected to see a snowstorm going into one of the heaviest drinking days of the year: the day before Thanksgiving.
Drunk driving and dangerous roads can be a messy combination. So more than 300 law enforcement agencies across the state are working together to get impaired drivers off the roads. Officers, deputies and troopers will be participating in an extra DWI enforcement campaign starting Nov. 27 and running on weekends through Dec. 28.
Among some of the state's most dangerous drunk driving counties, 18 officers are dedicated full-time to DWI patrols.
Between October 1, 2018 and September 31, 2019, DWI officers made nearly 1,800 arrests, representing seven percent of the state's total for that period.
Over the last five years, more than 125,000 people were arrested for DWI in Minnesota. Almost 13,000 of those arrests happened between the Thanksgiving and New Year's holidays: 10 percent of all DWIs in the last five years.
Since 2014, drunk driving has contributed to 28 deaths on Minnesota roads from the day before Thanksgiving through Dec. 30.