Pierce County law enforcement officers will take to Lakewood streets this weekend, looking for drunken drivers and trying to educate the bars that last served drivers before they got pulled over.
The emphasis patrol will start at 9 p.m. Saturday and stretch into early Sunday.
As part of the Home Safe Bar program, which launched last June, officers and representatives from the state Liquor Control Board will visit bars to raise awareness of how they can help reduce drunken driving incidents.
“It’s an opportunity to meet with servers and bartenders and call to their attention that somebody said they were drinking from the bar before their DUI arrest,” said Gloria Mansfield Averill, manager of Target Zero, the federally funded campaign against drunk driving.
The bar visits are made within an hour of the arrest.
This weekend, Averill said, at least 25 officers will participate in the dual-pronged program. Three liquor board officers will ride along.
It is the first Home Safe Bar event of the year. Another half dozen or so will be held by Oct. 31 in Tacoma, Puyallup and other cities.
More than 20 people have been saved through increased DUI Target Zero teams in the last 18 months, said Fircrest Police Chief John Cheesman, chairman of the Tacoma Pierce County DUI and Traffic Safety Task Force.
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