Police concluded one stage of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute's Operation Pull Over on Sunday after about two weeks of increased enforcement of impaired driving laws, Sgt. Brad Arey, of the Muncie Police Department, said.
The slogan for the blitz, which began Aug. 24 and ended Sept. 9, was "Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest."
Rachel Meyer, ICJI communications manager, said they chose this time of the year to restrict driving under the influence because it has the highest number of reported arrests and citations.
Operation Pull Over consists of four blitzes each year, Meyer said. The other blitzes are "safe family travel" during Thanksgiving, "child passenger safety" in February and "Click it or Ticket" in May and June, she said.
According to the ICJI's Web site, a blitz serves as a "wave of education and awareness" for Indiana residents.
Arey said the blitzes help officers crack down on one specific issue during each blitz.
"When you have the blitz, you're focusing more on that particular problem," Arey said.
With funds from the ICJI, the police department is able to afford officers' over-time pay from the increased enforcement.
Arey said that officers arrest one impaired driver every three hours on average. However, during a blitz, officers will make arrests once every two hours, he said.
Arey said the MPD focused its efforts on State Road 32, Ball State University's campus and the south side of Muncie. The police department has found that between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays is when the most drunk drivers are arrested, he said.
The effectiveness of Operation Pull Over is hard to gauge, Arey said.
"We're getting drunks every two hours, so, yes, we're being successful," he said. "The problem is it's an ongoing process because we have a lot of repeat offenders."
Meyer said final results on the blitz will not be available until Sept. 21.
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