Right out of the gate, let's set the obvious into stone: Don't drink and drive. At all. Ever. Especially tonight. It's not only dumb but expensive. Worse, all your friends will find out. They'll laugh at you.
But let's say you have a friend. This friend has a big New Year's Eve date scheduled for the Cheesecake Factory. Things are going great, the lovely date is laughing at all the fiscal cliff jokes you your friend came up with over the last week. That Nautica shirt Mom bought for Christmas looks sharp. She orders another daiquiri. You follow suit. Next thing you know, it's New Year's Eve, you're borderline, and it's time for the drive home. What do you do?
You call a cab, idiot. Everyone knows for the police on New Year's, hunting drunk drivers is as easy as knocking down fowl in the first level of Duck Hunt.
But according to local enforcement, the police in Broward and Palm Beach will be searching the open waters mostly -- not posting up in official sobriety checkpoints.
New Times reached out to reps with a number of agencies last week about whether they were setting up checkpoints and where. A lot answered in the negative. We'll update this post with new info throughout the day if the situation changes, but as of now:
The Fort Lauderdale Police department is not setting up any checkpoints. The Palm Beach Sheriff's Department also told us it was not planning on any stops.
As of Friday afternoon, the media relations folks at the Broward Sheriff's Office had not been apprised of any planned checkpoints.
Also, according to the Florida Highway Patrol, it's not planning stops in Broward or Palm Beach counties.
There you have it. We'll be updating throughout the day if the situation changes. But it goes without saying that police will still be out on the prowl, so don't be an idiot. Remember, all your friends will laugh at you, or worse.
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