The Memorial Day holiday weekend makes us think of barbeques with friends and family, high school and college graduations, and for locals, “Urban Beach Week,” which means parties and hip-hop concerts across South Beach. What’s not to love about this weekend?
The three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend means there will be plenty of alcohol flowing, so it’s no wonder why the national holiday is associated with an uptick in drunk driving from Miami to Los Angeles.
As Americans make plans to celebrate the three-day weekend, law enforcement across the nation is preparing to increase its DUI enforcement efforts starting Friday, May 27th through Monday, May 30th, and you can bet that cops throughout Miami-Dade County are doing the same.
If you’re planning on partying this weekend, I highly recommend staying put as you celebrate, designating a sober driver, or calling Uber, Lyft or a cab.
Urban Beach Week 2016
Local law enforcement expects a large crowd this Memorial Day weekend in South Beach. To keep everybody safe during Urban Beach Week, officials will be creating a traffic loop, closing off Ocean Drive to motor vehicles. There will also be hundreds of police officers on patrol.
Unlike 2015, there will not be DUI checkpoints in South Beach during Urban Beach Week, but police will be patrolling the streets for drunk drivers, the Miami Herald reported.
With a high turnout anticipated this year, there will be a large police presence on the Beach. To prepare for the huge crowds, around 500 officers will be deployed, all from various departments throughout Miami-Dade County.
DUI Saturation Patrols in Miami
Even though there are no DUI checkpoints scheduled for South Beach this holiday weekend, you can be confident that Miami Beach Police Department traffic enforcement units will be on the lookout for drunk drivers throughout the city.
In fact, Miami Beach PD will be deploying highly trained DUI/DRE (drug recognition expert) officers to seek out and detain drunk or drugged drivers this Memorial Day weekend, so be sure not to drink and drive.
After the city’s DUI arrests plummeted in recent years, the department secured a $100,000 grant from the Florida Department of Transportation to help MBPD improve its DUI enforcement efforts. According to the Miami New Times, MBPD hopes that it will increase its DUI arrests by 7 percent in the next few years.
I recommend that you drink responsibly this Memorial Day weekend holiday, but if you are arrested for DUI, don’t hesitate to
contact my firm for an aggressive DUI defense with a top-rated DUI attorney!