CONCORD, N.C. — A Charlotte-area community has a new DWI Task Force that's sure to catch up with you if you drink and drive.
Concord Police Department's DWI Task Force said the mission of it's newly established team is not about how many arrests they make, instead, it's about preventing tragedies caused by drunk drivers.
"It's not just the people they hurt, it's their family, their friends, their coworkers, and the community," said Captain Todd McGhee as he talked about the impacts drunk driving crashes have.
McGhee leads the squad of officers on the task force in Concord.
On New Year's Eve, eight officers were out on the prowl to watch for signs of impaired drivers.
"They'll deploy several times a month at various times," McGhee said.
The force was established earlier in 2019 and started deployments on the street in December.
"We noticed there was a slight uptick statewide in impaired driving-related crashes," McGhee said.
McGhee added that in 2019, Concord saw roughly 400 drunk driving cases. It's what got Officer Steven Zollars to come up with the new task force.
"I felt like this was a good time to move forward with something like the DWI task force," Zollars said. "We want people, basically, to not drive drunk."
Instead of common check-points in which drivers can often avoid, according to McGhee, Tuesday night's strategy is different.
Saturation patrols were in force, where officers were looking for the common signs of drunk driving in two specific areas based on data from previous New Year's Eves.
"The locations are selected by data of impaired driver-related arrests and impaired driver-related crashes," McGhee said.
Officers will be out overnight, in hopes of preventing tragedies so many of us have seen.
"We want people to drink responsibly," McGhee said on New Year's Eve. "Irresponsible drivers who consume too much alcohol will be detected and arrested tonight."
The Concord Police Department said the DWI Task Force will be out every month through 2020.