(Fremont County, WY) – The newly formed multi-jurisdictional Fremont County DUI Team debuted in Riverton this past Friday, Oct. 27.
The team was staffed by officers of the Lander, Riverton and Shoshoni police departments and a deputy from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office. Chief Eric Hurtado of the Riverton Police Department hosted a briefing prior to the operation. The focus of this first operation was known areas of impaired driving crashes in Riverton.
During the operation, which ran into the early morning hours, team members made 62 traffic stops, issued 20 traffic citations, warned 45 motorists and arrested three impaired drivers.
Chief Chris Konija of the Shoshoni Police Department and Chief Scott Peters of the Lander Police Department participated in the operation. Chief Peters commented: “With all the high visibility enforcement in Riverton that evening, only two calls for service were made to the Riverton Police Department. This is a dramatic decrease from what is typically experienced in Riverton on a Friday night.”
No motor vehicle crashes took place in Riverton during the operation.
The team is funded by a Wyoming Department of Transportation Highway Safety Behavioral Grant and is intended to focus high visibility enforcement on the areas in Fremont County that are impacted by impaired drivers and impaired driving crashes.
The Fremont County DUI Team will complement the efforts of the Fremont County DUI Task Force and will be staffed by law enforcement well trained in impaired driving detection and apprehension. The team uses data to direct enforcement efforts to reduce the incidence of impaired driving in Fremont County.
The team is operating under a historic memorandum of understanding between the agencies that allows for enforcement county-wide.
The Fremont County DUI Team plans to have two to three impaired driving enforcement events a month throughout Fremont County.