NEWS RELEASE

DUI Task Force Arrests 10 During Surround The Sound Sweep

October 31, 2006

23 officers from 11 Pierce County law enforcement agencies were on the lookout for drunken motorists in Fife, Milton and the adjacent I-5 corridor Friday night. The Tacoma Pierce County DUI Task Force targeted the area as part of the annual Surround the Sound traffic emphasis patrol in which nine other counties participate. 

“The area can become thick with impaired drivers celebrating Halloween early” said Lt. Kevin Farris of the Fife Police Department who hosted the special patrol along with the Washington State Patrol.  But there were ten fewer cars on the road Friday after the people driving them were arrested for DUI. 

98 additional citations were issued for other traffic safety violations including aggressive driving and speeding.  One driver was arrested for being in possession of over 135 grams of marihuana. The Washington Liquor Control Board, working with an underage operative and police officers, wrote 11 underage alcohol-related citations for minor in possession, selling alcohol to minors and allowing minors to frequent premises where alcohol was served.

The emphasis patrol was dedicated to Phillip Schmolke who was killed by a drunk driver on November 21, 2004 while turning into his driveway on SR 702. Officers handed out flyers to each motorist they stopped in memory of Schmolke who was active in his church and a former volunteer with the Eatonville Police Department.
 
“It’s impossible to know whether the ten people we took off the road would have gone on to hurt or kill someone last Friday night,” but we didn’t give them the chance to find out,” said Chief Mike Davis, Chief of Police for Gig Harbor and chair of the task force.  

Law enforcement agencies throughout Pierce County used their own funds to put the officers on the road last weekend since grant funds for the multi-agency monthly patrols have been shifted statewide by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission to special holiday DUI campaigns.   Participants included the Tacoma, Puyallup, Pacific, Bonney Lake, University Place, Fife, Sumner, Lakewood and Milton police departments, the Washington State Patrol and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.