Zero Tolerance This Labor Day Weekend

The Labor Day holiday weekend means a lot of extra laboring for police in Missouri and Illinois. On both sides of the river Friday night, police were out in force trying to keep the roads safe. AAA estimates ten percent more people are hitting the roads during this Labor Day holiday than last year. Every available Missouri Highway Patrol trooper is working this weekend. The plan have a trooper every ten miles on I-70 on Friday then again on Monday.

"Obviously you want to show a presence. Being out there and seeing us on the road is the first step to any enforcement," said Missouri Highway Patrol Corporal Shane Kaden.

Several police departments on both sides of the river ran DUI checkpoints Friday night into early Saturday morning. Among the checkpoints that went up-one in Franklin County run by the Missouri Highway Patrol, one in Jefferson County run by the sheriff's department there and another in the metro east being coordinated by Illinois State Police and the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department.


"We do get drunks at just about at almost every, I won't say every, almost every roadside safety check. You know we do take impaired drivers off the road along with we take people with guns off the road, we take people that are picked up on warrants off the road from these roadside safety checks," explained Illinois State Police Trooper Mike Link.

Drivers we spoke with noticed the stepped up law enforcement. They think it in makes a difference. "People will be more cautious of being on the road knowing that they're out," said Tiffany Stephens from Ballwin. Coray Grove from Kirkwood added, "I think it makes you think about every move you make. And so when you go out on the holiday weekend you have to be extra careful."

In addition to the checkpoints, the Missouri Highway Patrol and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department also have officers out on the roads specifically looking for drunk drivers. Both the Missouri Highway Patrol and Illinois State Police tell me deaths from crashes are down substantially this year versus the same point last year.

That tells law enforcement the stepped up enforcement is working to make the roads safer.