The Juneau Police Department will double the number of officers working this holiday weekend in an effort to crack down on drunken driving and other driving offenses.
Memorial Day weekend is often a busy one for JPD, according to numbers provided last year from Public Safety Manager Erann Kalwara. From 6 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Tuesday on Memorial Day weekend in 2018, there were four drunken driving arrests and 10 other arrests. Those number were both increases from 2017, when there was one drunken driving arrest and there were nine other arrests, according to JPD statistics.
This weekend, officers will keep an eye out particularly for people not wearing seatbelts and for those driving while intoxicated, according to a JPD release. The department will also set up its Mobile Incident Command Vehicle in its spot Out the Road from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning. JPD encourages people to wear their seat belts, obey the speed limit, avoid being distracted on the road and to not hesitate to call for a safe and sober ride if they need one.
Since 2013, JPD has responded to an average of nearly 400 calls between the hours of 6 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Tuesday of Memorial Day weekend, according to JPD statistics.
