Patrols stepped up for St. Patrick’s

Newport Beach police will be ramping up DUI enforcement tonight as many people celebrating St. Patrick’s Day will have a little Irish spirit — and spirits — in them.

Three squad cars, each with two officers, will patrol the Balboa Peninsula and the rest of the city to find potential drunk drivers, police said. The six officers will complement regular police in the city.

Police will also start “Operation Trapdoor,” in which two pairs of plain-clothes officers will be spending time in peninsula bars to look for law violations.

Sgt. Steve Burdette said the undercover officers from the vice and Alcohol Beverage Control units will search for people trying to get into bars with fake identification or who are breaking other laws.

— Joseph Serna