St. Patrick's Day brought much fun and frivolity this weekend, but Windsor police were busy keeping the shenanigans under control.
With March 17 falling on a Sunday this year, revellers were out in force throughout the weekend celebrating the Irish holiday. Windsor police say the focus of their efforts was keeping impaired drivers off the roads with two RIDE programs, the first from Friday night into Saturday morning, the second from Saturday night into Sunday morning. A total of 1,832 drivers were interviewed through the course of the weekend.
Sergeant Steve Betteridge, WPS public information officer, told BlackburnNewsWindsor.com Monday afternoon that it was a typical Saturday night for officers patrolling the downtown core, and that crowds were generally well-behaved.
Despite multiple appeals from law enforcement across Windsor-Essex, as well as MADD Windsor and Essex County, for those who partied too much to designate a driver or call a cab or rideshare, there were drivers suspected according to the latest RIDE figures provided by Windsor police.
The first series of RIDE programs, in Windsor and Amherstburg brought forth ten roadside tests being administered. This resulted in two automatic three-day licence suspensions. Another driver was arrested for refusing to give a breath sample. Nearly 70 additional tickets were also given out for assorted offences.
https://twitter.com/WindsorPolice/status/1107294960792100864
Police set up three additional RIDE checkpoints on Sunday. These yielded 22 roadside tests, four automatic three-day licence suspensions and two impaired driving arrests.
https://twitter.com/WindsorPolice/status/1107643020118241280