YEAR IN REVIEW: : Law Enforcement Will Step Up Patrols for New Year’s Eve

Nearly a dozen new traffic laws go into effect Monday morning, but police and sheriff’s deputies across Ventura County this weekend will zero in on one old violation: driving under the influence.

The constant hunt for drunk drivers is being stepped up by most area law-enforcement agencies, which have scheduled extra patrols and warned New Year’s Eve revelers to designate a driver.

The California Highway Patrol is in the midst of a 78-hour maximum-enforcement period that ends at midnight Monday. About 75% of the approximately 66 local CHP officers will be patrolling the highways in search of impaired motorists.

There are no scheduled DUI checkpoints throughout the county. But law enforcement officials say they will seek out those who disregard the laws.

In Oxnard, police administrators have arranged for a special street-crime unit and several detectives to work the weekend in anticipation of potential crimes or violence.

One sergeant advised people to stay home if they can.

“Unless you absolutely have to, I would not be out on the roads,� Oxnard Police Sgt. Randy Coats said.

“Not only do you have a lot of the drinkers out there, generally at New Year’s there’s a substantial amount of gunfire,� Coats said. “It’s dangerous. We have hundreds and hundreds of people with guns out there.�

Coats said he was not aware of any injuries as a result of gunplay on recent New Year’s Eves, but he said there had been several reports of property damage as a result of falling bullets.

Simi Valley police traditionally assign more patrol officers on holiday weekends, Sgt. Ron Chambers said. Those units have one primary objective, he said.

“They are specifically directed toward locating and apprehending driving-under-the-influence suspects,� said Chambers, who will work much of the weekend himself.

“Because of the holiday season, people tend to take a little more liberty with their alcohol and they’re more likely to be impaired,� he said. “The public expects additional enforcement, and we’ve made it the norm.�

Ventura County Sheriff’s Department officials also said they will aggressively enforce laws against drinking and driving.

In Thousand Oaks, city officials have adopted a law that allows police to charge residents the cost of processing a complaint for repeated violation of the city’s noise ordinance.

There are a number of statewide traffic regulations that take effect one minute after midnight tonight. They include:

* Caltrans and the CHP can set speed limits of up to 70 mph on California freeways.

* Local governments will be allowed to use automated cameras to identify drivers who run red lights. Registered owners will then be sent penalties through the mail.

* As an experiment, three “double fine zones� will be created across the state that allow officials to impose twice the penalty for moving violations. The zones have not yet been designated.

* Police can immediately seize and impound a vehicle involved in a traffic accident if the driver is operating the car without a valid license.

“With the new 65-mph speed limits and the compliance that people are showing with it, we’re doing quite well so far this weekend,� CHP Sgt. Mike Cooper said Saturday.

“Hopefully we’ll have a quiet New Year’s Eve and New Year’s,� he said. “Right now, everything seems to be going very good as far as traffic is concerned.�

Weather forecasters call for sunny skies and a brisk wind today and Monday. High temperatures are expected to be in the high 60s to mid-70s, with overnight lows dropping to the mid-40s.

“It’s going to be clear, but it will be windy,� said Bill Hoffer of the National Weather Service. “But that’s not unusual for this time of year. We’re still in a transition from summer to winter on the West Coast.�