As an ongoing part of the Wichita Police Department’s Traffic Safety Initiative, Officers will be conducting a DUI saturation patrol and a DUI check lane this weekend. Officers will be patrolling West Kellogg on Friday night, August 15, in an effort to locate intoxicated drivers.
“Even with our stepped up patrol on West Kellogg, we’ve still experienced an increase in citizen complaints regarding possible drunk drivers on Kellogg,” said Sergeant Jerry Quick, Patrol West Bureau. “This DUI saturation is designed to identify impaired drivers and remove them from our roadways.”
Officers participating in this enforcement activity will be driving marked police cars with a DUI Task Force sign on the vehicle. Motorists who are suspected of driving under the influence will be pulled over and given a field sobriety test, which may be followed by a Breath Alcohol Test. Those drivers found to be over the legal limit of .08 will be arrested.
On Saturday night, August 16, the Patrol East Bureau will be conducting a DUI check lane at Harry and Woodlawn from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Drivers who approach the lane should be prepared to present their driver’s license and proof of insurance. Any drivers who cannot produce these items, or who are suspected of driving under the influence, will be asked to pull over into another lane, according to Sergeant Allen Wolf, Patrol East Bureau.
The Wichita Police Department will have a supervisor routinely monitoring the length of time it takes a motorist to proceed through the check lane when no violations have been detected. This process should take no more than five minutes.
If police suspect a person of DUI, and he/she refuses to submit to a sobriety test, he/she is subject to having their driver’s license suspended for a year. Fines for Driving Under the Influence are progressive for each subsequent conviction and can result in a felony crime and imprisonment. The legal limit in the State of Kansas for adults is .08 percent Blood Alcohol Content. Those drivers under 21 years of age cannot have a blood alcohol content of more than .02 percent.
These DUI Enforcement activities are just one aspect of the four-prong approach that the Department is using in addressing traffic safety in the city of Wichita. The four aspects of the Department’s traffic safety plan are education, enforcement, environment and awareness. Funding for this enforcement effort was made possible though an Impaired Driver Deterrence Grant through the Kansas Department of Transportation.
For more information on this project, please contact Sgt. Allen Wolf, Patrol East, at 688-9331 or Sgt. Jerry Quick, Patrol West, at 941-0673.