Beware on Pasco Roads Labor Day Weekend

If you’re thinking about tipping a few cold ones back in honor of the long Labor Day weekend, be sure to stay off Pasco County’s roadways afterward. Law enforcement officers will be out looking for you if you don’t.

“Hopefully everyone has a safe holiday and remembers to drive sober or get pulled over,” said Sgt. Art Rowand of the Pasco County Sheriff's Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, or STEP for short.

STEP Unit members will be in the Land O’ Lakes and Wesley Chapel areas throughout the long holiday weekend and beyond. The unit was created to target different areas of the county for impaired and aggressive driving.

Deputies in the unit deputies operate a little differently than officers assigned to patrol. Rather than move from call to call, they target specific areas looking for potential traffic problems.

The unit rotates its presence throughout the county, concentrating on one area at a time where traffic-related concerns are high. It then moves to another part of the county.

According to the Pasco Sheriff’s Office website, the unit will be in our area between the hours of 5 and 10 p.m. through Sunday, Sept. 4.

It will return again on Labor Day and stay through Sept. 11 looking especially for impaired drivers. Units will be on the streets between the hours of 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. during this enforcement period.

The Florida Highway Patrol will also be on local streets in force this weekend.

“Drunk driving is simply not worth the risk," said Col. David Brierton, FHP's director, in a media release. "Not only do you risk killing yourself or someone else, but also the trauma and financial costs of a crash or an arrest for impaired driving can be significant."