To make county roads a little safer this holiday season, the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department will conducti safety checkpoints.

The effort began mid-December and will run all the way through the holidays until Jan. 2, said Capt. Kelvin Stanford.

In conjunction with Mississippi Highway Patrol, Poplarville Police Department and the Picayune Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department will target all manner of safety issues, including traffic violations, warrants, seat belt use and driving under the influence.

Not only will the checks be made in the north and south ends of the county but everywhere in between, Stanford said. The department will make use of its reserve deputies, which are community volunteers from every walk of life.

Overtime will not be an issue since the extra man hours involved in conducting the operation will be reimbursed by the Office of Highway Safety with a DUI grant.

The operation will be county wide and will include every major county thoroughfare chosen by past complaints and statistics where offenses occurred in the past year.

Since January of this year, the department has made about 186 DUI arrests, with 14 of those made during the last safety check during Thanksgiving weekend, Stanford said.

Stanford asks the community for help in keeping DUI offenders off the road. Not only does he ask residents who think they might have a few drinks to ride with a designated driver, he also asks if someone suspects they see drunk driver on the road to call 911 and relay that information to law enforcement while keeping a safe distance.