By By Connie Nowlin Managing editor
Although the numbers of tickets and warnings issued by the city of Atmore were down during the Thanksgiving holiday Click It or Ticket blitz, it was considered a success because there are fewer violations than in previous operations. The sweep netted 89 arrests or tickets and 59 written warnings.
Countywide there were 85 tickets issued and 214 warnings written.
With that as a backdrop, Maj. Mike Murphy of the Escambia County Sheriff's Department has announced the Christmas blitz.
It will begin this weekend, and there will be eight additional deputies on the roads looking for impaired drivers.
"I hope everybody has a safe time during the Christmas holidays," Murphy said. "The Escambia County Sheriff's Office will do everything possible in making the highways safer for people to travel. If you drink and drive during this period, there's a good chance that we will find you on the highway. In four nights, we will have equivalent to 32 extra deputies out looking for unsafe drivers."
The blitz will be Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights, but there are two other nights the extra patrols will be on the roads, and those dates are not being made public.
Murphy said that the Sheriff's Office was being fair because it had given the public a warning.
"I hope that … people who would otherwise be drinking and driving would choose to stay off the roads, eliminating traffic accidents."
The Atmore Police Department will also have a six-night enforcement blitz, concentrating on impaired drivers.
The money used to pay officers for the additional hours are from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. Click it or Ticket is administered by the Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan.