PARIS – Oxford County Sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Wainwright has an enviable average.

He said he’s batting 1,000, that is when he is on special patrol to catch those drinking and driving.

“I’ve been out three times and I’m three for three,” Wainwright said.

He is in charge of a $3,000 grant the Sheriff’s Department received in May from the Bureau of Public Safety to help get those drinking and driving off the roads.

The grant pays wages for deputies who go on the road just to look for those who are intoxicated.

Wainwright said so far deputies have used about 30 man-hours to make six arrests. He said that most likely none of those arrests would have been made if not for the extra patrol.

“When you get one you are pretty much done for the shift,” Wainwright said. “You have to get the vehicle towed, take the person to the jail in Paris, processing him, booking him, Breathalyzer testing and the setting of bail.”

He called the shift the “OUI Emphasis Patrol.” Wainwright explained that an officer would go out four to six hours, usually on a weekend night and most often from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Wainwright said Oxford County deputies have teamed with local police to do safety checkpoints. They will set up cruisers and cones and stop drivers. He said sometimes they will stop every driver, every third driver or even every fifth driver.

On Aug. 15 he said deputies and Rumford police teamed up on a safety checkpoint and made four operating under the influence arrests, had two other criminal arrests, issued numerous warnings and citations and issued four summonses on charges of consuming while operating, but the operators were not found over the legal limit for blood alcohol content.

Last Sunday from 6 to 9 p.m., Oxford County deputies and Fryeburg police set up a safety checkpoint in Fryeburg and made two OUI arrests, issued 12 summonses, gave 25 warnings for seat belt violations and had one other traffic violation.

Wainwright won’t say where or when the next safety checkpoints will be, but he did say that deputies would be doing “some” over the Labor Day weekend and into the early fall.

The grant runs out in October.

He said he feels good about the program.

“We’re taking drunks off the street,” he said.

jsmedley@sunjournal.com

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