Maricopa Police Target Arizona DUI

New Maricopa Police Department set to crack down on drunk driving.

The town of Maricopa, Arizona has a new police department and even though it isn’t fully staffed it has made drunk driving a target. Funded by a grant from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, the fast growing suburb of Phoenix has created a DUI task force aimed at arresting motorists driving under the influence.

The efforts will include sobriety checkpoints, saturation patrols and use undercover officers. While there are no official DUI statistics for the new department Maricopa Police Chief Patrick Melvin says that drunk drivers are out there and that the area’s citizens want police to deal with them.

Before the creation of the Maricopa Police Department last July, law enforcement was provided by the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. The county will continue to assist the town through July 2008 as Maricopa develops its own services.