Cops crackdown with DUI checkpoints

The heat is on this weekend as cops set up DUI checkpoints as part of the culmination of the state’s “100 Days of Heat Campaign” designed to crack down on drinking and driving.

Two DUI checkpoints were set up Friday in Lakewood, with one located at Wadsworth and Ohio at the scene where a suspected DUI crash last week killed a 58-year-old bicyclist.

Officers have made 2,000 DUI arrests in Colorado since the campaign began Memorial Day. In 2011, there was an average of 72 DUI arrests per day in the state.

The goal is not to make arrests (8-12 were expected Friday night in Lakewood) but to send a larger message to the public, that drinking and driving don’t mix.

“We want the public to know that we as an organization, we as law enforcement in general, are concerned about people getting behind the wheel and driving and that we’re serious about locating violators,” said Sgt. John Griffith with the Lakewood Police Department.