State Troopers report regional ticketing totals from holiday traffic

The totals are in. The New York State Police and Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC) recently announced that 106,509 tickets were issued by law enforcement (local and state) statewide between Wednesday, December 13, 2023, and Monday, January 1, 2024, as part of the national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over traffic enforcement period over the Christmas and New Year’s Day holiday. The initiative targeted impaired and reckless drivers.

For comparison, during last year’s National DWI Crackdown, the state police issued 32,934 total tickets and arrested 453 people for DWI. This year state police alone issued 37,422 tickets and arrested 510 people for DWI.

For our region, which is considered Troop F for the New York State Police, officers issued a total of 1,780 tickets for that same time period. According to the data, troopers issued 497 speeding tickets, 43 distracted driving tickets and 84 seatbelt-related tickets, and arrested 43 people for driving while intoxicated, among other offenses.

During the DWI crackdown, which is funded by the GTSC, state police spot impaired drivers through sobriety checkpoints and additional DWI patrols. They also ticketed distracted drivers using handheld electronic devices. Troopers used both marked state police vehicles and “Concealed Identity Traffic Enforcement” (CITE) vehicles as part of this crackdown. According to police, CITE vehicles “blend in with everyday traffic but are unmistakable as emergency vehicles once the emergency lighting is activated.”