Moorpark Officers to Serve on DUI Task Force

Moorpark police personnel will be part of a 15-member task force out on the streets Friday night to target those driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The Avoid the 14 force, named after the 14 law enforcement entities joining together to crack down on impaired drivers, will descend upon an unamed city in Ventura County Friday night from 8:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday morning.

“The task force will concentrate on known DUI hot spots,” said Oxnard police Sgt. Randy Latimer, campaign coordinator. 

“These deputies and officers are highly trained and determined to get impaired drivers off the road and in jail before they kill or hurt themselves, their friends or family or a perfectly innocent stranger who just decided to drive to the grocery store,” Latimer added.

As of midnight Tuesday, police in the county had arrested 161 DUI suspects, down from 211 at the same time last year, according to a statement issued by Avoid the 14.

There have been seven alcohol-related injury crashes, closing in on the eight such crashes during last year’s crackdown and, according to the statement, impaired drivers have killed no one in the county since the campaign began Aug. 17. The crackdown will last until Labor Day.

The California Office of Traffic Safety funds the Ventura County crackdown through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Avoid the 14 is one of 41 similar countywide crackdowns in the state; all are on high alert for DUI suspects during the summer mobilization.