Law enforcement in and around Ames is stepped up at the end of each year in hopes of preventing drunken driving after holiday parties. The upcoming holiday season will be no exception.

Sara Kellogg, Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention program coordinator, said it’s a well-known fact that consumption of alcohol increases during holidays that have more of a “party-like” atmosphere.

“That’s why the police tend to enforce more during holidays like New Year’s,” she said. “There are all kinds of big parties, and there’s a big risk that someone could be injured or killed through drunk driving.”

Ames Police Cmdr. Jim Robinson said that, even though there are fewer people in the Ames community during winter break because students go back home to visit their families, the department continues to fully staff its patrol shifts. Closer to the holidays, he said, the police department will put extra officers on every shift in order to make sure drivers are following the rules of the road.

“We know there are many parties going on around this time, and we want to make sure everyone is safe,” Robinson said. “Of course, with more police officers out on patrol, the number of arrests will rise slightly on New Year’s Eve.”

Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Genie Clemens said her department also makes more stops during this time because it keeps approximately 70 additional officers on duty for each shift.

“We focus more on patrolling the state and county highways then,” she said. “Iowa’s interstates have been proven to be some of the safest roads to travel on.”

Clemens said it is encouraging to law enforcement officials that fatalities on state and county roads have been declining.

“I think people are more aware now around the New Year’s holiday, especially, because they more often have designated drivers,” she said. “Over Thanksgiving of this year, fatalities went down by nearly 70 percent over last year.”

Neither department keeps statistics on what offenses are looked for and ticketed most often during the holiday season, but Robinson said officers always look for suspicious activity on the road.

“Typically, stops involve driving without a seatbelt, speeding or failure to stop,” he said. “Police will also make a stop if they feel a driver is impaired through some driving maneuvers like weaving, excessive speeding or driving considerably under the speed limit.”