Memorial Day is behind us, and now we can look forward to more summer holidays on Long Island. But just as Memorial Day and Fourth of July bring families and friends together to celebrate and enjoy the warm weather, these summer holidays represent a milestone of a different nature for local law enforcement agencies.
Police officers know that many people celebrate holidays with alcohol. As a result, police are very vigilant in looking for DWI suspects on or around holidays. This past Memorial Day was no exception.
This year, law enforcement officials have named their enhanced enforcement efforts “Stop DWI,” and they launched a series of enhanced enforcement measures around the Memorial Day holiday. These efforts included sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols in strategic locations throughout the state.
In recent years, New York has enacted some of the strictest DWI laws in the United States, especially when a child is a passenger in the car of an alleged drunk driver. If a driver is found with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or greater while a child younger than 16 years old is in the car, then that driver can be charged with a felony level offense, even if it is a first-time DWI offense. This provision of New York law is commonly known as Leandra’s Law.
Just as law enforcement authorities take drunk driving very seriously, defense attorneys understand the importance of challenging DWI charges with a serious defense. Although it may often seem that the prosecutors have all of the power in a DWI prosecution because they have the blood alcohol test on their side, criminal defense attorneys understand that all of the evidence that prosecutors bring to court can be challenged, especially blood alcohol tests.
Source: MPNnow.com, “STOP-DWI Crackdown set for Memorial Day weekend,” Melody Burri, May 23, 2013