Hey Drunk Drivers Beware: Cops Out in Force This Weekend

By Lauren Smiley Wed., Feb. 23 2011 at 11:38 AM

Categories: Local News

Consider yourself warned.

You can't say you haven't been warned. Police are telling you now that they will be stationed in the Richmond District this weekend, looking for drunk drivers.

Cops will set up a DUI checkpoint at Geary Boulevard and 9th Avenue Saturday night starting at 8:30 p.m.

So here is the question we have: Why do the cops always tell people in advance the location of DUI checkpoints? Isn't that giving drunk drivers plenty of time to find another route?

Jan Ford, spokeswoman for the California Avoid the 8 campaign, says the disclosure is supposed to be a fair warning to intoxicated drivers that cops will be out there looking for them.

But then she admits that these warnings don't seem to work.

"I've been working with checkpoint for 30 years, and it doesn't make any difference," Ford says. "You're working with people who are intoxicated and they don't even remember where the checkpoint is."

"Alcohol gives people a sense of invulnerability like 'I can fool those officers'," Ford added.

So there you go, even those in charge of DUI checkpoints believe these sobriety stations are doing very little to curb a serious problem.

Follow us on Twitter at @SFWeekly and @TheSnitchSF