There's no disputing that driving drunk is stupid. You could kill someone, hurt someone, or, at the very least, get stopped by a cop, pay a hefty fine, and possibly spend some time in the tents at Joe Arpaio's jails. Nobody wants that.
You could also get away scot-free, which is often the thinking behind the decision to not pay for a cab to drive your drunk ass home.
If the Tempe Police Department has any say in the matter, which it does, nobody will be getting away scot-free -- especially not this weekend.
For the second weekend in a row, the Tempe PD is teaming up with the
East Valley DUI task force to step up DUI enforcement efforts.
The increased enforcement effort comes as students at Arizona State University begin their first week of classes.
Tempe police Sergeant Steve Carbajal told us earlier this week
that while officers aren't specifically targeting students, they're
targeting areas where students would likely be driving drunk. We're
assuming he means the Mill Avenue area and other party spots around the
university.
As we said earlier in the week, it's sort of a "hi, welcome to Tempe. If you drive drunk you're fucked" type thing for students.
Last weekend, when students began moving into ASU dorms, officers made 405 stops, netting a total of 67 DUIs.
The average BAC of the cited impaired drivers was .145, which, if you
know anything about booze, doesn't take a whole lot of alcohol to
achieve.
So don't risk it. If you're shit faced in Tempe this weekend do yourself
a favor and call a cab. Sure, it costs money but not nearly as much as a
DUI.
