Pa. Police Stop 1,000 in Anti-Drunk Driving Effort

Police have stopped about 1,000 vehicles and made 20 arrests in Pittsburgh as part of “Operation Nighthawk,” a regional campaign to crack down on drunken driving, police said.

A joint force of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania state police halted many of the vehicles at a checkpoint as they left nightspots in the city’s South Side neighborhood late Friday and early Saturday.

Pittsburgh police planned to add 12 roving patrols to target drunken drivers throughout Allegheny, Beaver, Washington, Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland counties from late Saturday through early Sunday, authorities said.

The effort is part of a police campaign in the mid-Atlantic region called “Operation Nighthawk” and an annual national sweep, which typically runs from mid-August through Labor Day, to reduce impaired driving.

Pittsburgh police say they plan to have additional patrols and so-called sobriety checkpoints every weekend through the end of September.