It was a busy past couple of days for local law enforcement as they executed their largest “No Refusal” weekend operation.
Lubbock Police report that this was the first time that LPD, DPS, the Lubbock Sheriff’s Office, TxDOT and the District Attorney’s office collaborated on such a large scale operation.
Between the agencies, 43 DWI arrests were made just over the course of the weekend. Chief Greg Stevens says to put that in perspective, Lubbock Police usually make between eight to 10 DWI arrests in one week.
“Historically, this is the first no refusal type of an event like this that we’ve held in this area at least to this scale,” said Stevens. “We would love to have this [No Refusal weekend] and end up with no arrests that night. That’s what success would look like, is that we brought out a ton of officers and we did our best and we hunted and hunted and we couldn’t find anyone driving drunk.”
DPS reports that in 2015, there were 349 alcohol-related crashes in Lubbock County, and of those 349, 15 people lost their lives.
“If you do the math, that’s almost one a day, that’s too many,” said Gary Albus, region five DPS commander. “We got to look at the crash data so we said hey let’s get together and let’s do something, so that’s what we did and we think it was a huge success. I want to thank all of our partners.”
Guy Haden, a special speaker at Monday’s presser, personally knows the devastating effects of losing someone to drunk driving. He shared his story of having lost his younger brother, Patrick, last year.
“My brother was coming home from a birthday party, it was his wife’s birthday when they got hit. He spent 49 days fighting for his life in the end he was still fighting we had to turn the machine off, he was on a 100% life support,” said Haden. “I’m here to let you know this is real.”
In addition to their fellow crew members, law enforcement officials also gave thanks to the Lubbock MADD chapter, Citibus, and Star ER who opened their doors to allow the easy movement of officers and drivers coming in and out to perform blood tests.
“Star ER was proud to partner with our law enforcement officials to provide a safe and clean environment for mandatory blood draws,” said Ryan Lewis, CEO of Star ER. “We did this in hope of having an overall goal similar to their’s in keeping our community safe.”
No Refusal weekends mean that a driver is pulled over for suspicion of driving while intoxicated must provide a breath or blood sample for testing. If a driver fails to voluntarily provide a blood sample or take a breathalyzer test, a warrant will be issued to that individual, giving officers authority to collect a sample despite the person’s objections.
While typically reserved for major holiday or big game weekends, Chief Stevens said that he would like to try to help organize “No Refusal” weekends more often.
In addition to the 43 DWIs, law enforcement on the “No Refusal” weekend also provided the following statistics:
– 41 blood draws, 2 breath samples
– 28 drug offense charges
– 20 other criminal offenses
– 67 warrants served
– 467 total traffic stops
– 15 motor vehicle accidents worked
– 46 vehicles searched
– assisted 10 motorists
