MEDIA RELEASE
FROM:
Don Scheibler
Chief of Police
Hays, KS
CONTACT PERSON:
Mitch Berens
Patrol Sergeant
Hays Police Department
(785) 625-1030
mberens@haysusa.com
DATE:
April 18, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUBJECT:
Impaired Driving Enforcement with Saturation Patrols
Beginning April 19th through April 20th, the Hays Police Department will join other Law Enforcement agencies in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma to stop what has been an increasing epidemic for the past several years.
In an effort to change this trend, law enforcement across the six-state area will be extra-vigilant when patrolling around city, state and federal highways. Deaths and injuries continue to increase from both alcohol and drug impaired drivers. Regardless of whether a drug is legal or illegal, it’s a serious crime to drive while impaired by any drug. We can no longer share our roadways with these drug impaired drivers. Impaired driving is not a victimless crime.
Additional officers will be out patrolling, looking for impaired drivers. Officers will issue citations to any individual who refuses to obey the traffic laws, whether it is for driving while impaired, for speeding, texting, or failing to buckle up. If a suspected violator refuses to submit to a blood test, a search warrant may be obtained for that individual’s blood.
We are using 4/20 as a date to draw attention to the drugged driving epidemic, simply because it’s the day where people on 4/20 at 4:20 PM light up their drugs as a celebration. JAMA (Journal of American Medicine Association) has found a 12% increase in the relative risk of a fatal crash compared to identical time intervals on control days.
Even one death is unacceptable. Please don’t drive while impaired, slow down, put the phone away or turn it off, and always buckle up.
Help keep our streets safe.