Eight individuals were arrested on charges of DWI and one on charges of possession of crack and cocaine. Police also arrested one man for whom they already had a warrant. Citations were issued for various other traffic offenses.
The checkpoint was held from 11 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday at Raleigh Road and Friday Center Drive. It was presided over by the Chapel Hill and Hillsborough police, the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the N.C. Highway Patrol.
Lt. Tim Pressley, traffic enforcement supervisor for the Chapel Hill Police Department, said these checkpoints are held "to increase DWI awareness."
Officials want to make people aware that drinking and driving is both illegal and potentially deadly, Pressley said.
Sgt. Phil Wadsworth of the highway patrol said there is a "systematic program" in place for the procedure at these checkpoints. All vehicles are stopped, but if congestion becomes a significant inconvenience, state law requires that traffic be cleared out before the officers can continue checking.
He said there was a magistrate on hand to charge people at the site because some checkpoints have shut down after three hours, with lines of people down at the magistrate's office waiting to be charged.
Sparrow noted that the new setup helped speed up the process at this weekend's checkpoint because everything was self-contained, with the magistrate and the breath-alcohol tests on location. "(Arrests) were much higher than what we had in the past."
He attributed the increase to the UNC football game in the afternoon and the 11 p.m. starting time of the checkpoint, which was earlier than usual.
Pressley said 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. is the most productive time to hold checkpoints because that is when patrons leave bars.
