January 28, 2009 > Grant helps DUI enforcement Grant helps DUI enforcement By Dustin Findley City Council adopted a resolution approving the "Avoid the 13" grant program agreement with the County of Santa Clara and the California Office of Traffic Safety at the January 6 meeting. Lt. Henry Kwong, Milpitas Police Department traffic unit supervisor, described the program. Lt. Kwong said that "'Avoid the 13' is a DUI enforcement campaign that is coordinated throughout the county of Santa Clara. And it's called 'Avoid the 13' because it comprises of 13 law enforcement agencies in Santa Clara County. So currently this particular grant is going to be administered through the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office." "All of the agencies that want to participate will be working with the sheriff's office to coordinate DUI enforcement activities at different holidays throughout the year. So, for example, New Year's, Super Bowl Sunday, Fourth of July, Labor Day, there's going to be different types of enforcement activities: accommodations of saturation control, and sobriety checkpoints. So the Avoid the 13 grant program helps fund some overtime in order to dedicate officers specifically for that task." The money for this grant program comes from the Office of Traffic Safety of the State of California, with the help of the National Transportation Safety Board. Milpitas is one of the 13 law enforcement agencies in Santa Clara County. There are many counties throughout the state of California that have similar DUI enforcement programs, like Avoid the 26 in San Mateo County. The California Highway Patrol also helps Milpitas Police coordinate statistics gathering for data regarding DUIs around the holidays.