Police Beat by Tom Geyer

The Iowa State Patrol held a Safe Saturdays enforcement throughout the month of June, beginning the program in the Quad-Cities on June 6.
Iowa State Patrol Trooper Dan Loussaert said that Safe Saturdays returns to the Quad-Cities this coming Saturday, Aug. 29.
Loussaert said that intoxicated drivers kill about 100 people per year in Iowa, and that nearly 25 percent of all fatal accidents in the state involve an intoxicated driver.
He added that police throughout Iowa arrested nearly 20,000 drunk drivers each year. Drivers ages 16-25 represent only 16 percent of registered Iowa drivers, but they comprise more than 30 percent of intoxicated drivers who are involved in fatal crashes, he said.
Loussaert gives good advice: “If you are going to drink at a party, make plans to stay there, have a designated driver, get a cab, but don’t drink and drive.”
Of course, police are gearing up for the Labor Day holiday. The Illinois State Police will hold two roadside safety checks in Rock Island County during that three-day weekend.
Illinois drivers should remember that a first-time offense in Illinois means having to put an alcohol ignition device on their vehicles before they can get any driving privileges.
That Illinois law took effect Jan. 1. Anyone convicted of drunken driving will be required to install a Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device, or BAIID, and obtain a monitoring device-driving permit if that person wants to be able to have some driving privileges during the length of their driver’s license suspension.
The new law also requires offenders to submit a breath test every time they wish to start their vehicles and at periodic intervals after their vehicles have been started. The Illinois Secretary of State’s office will administer the program. The cost to the driver is an additional $1,300 dollars for the installation and rental of the machine along with administrative costs. That means a first-time DUI in Illinois runs about $8,300, police said.
Of course, police in Iowa also will be out in force during that holiday weekend.