Warrant sweep nets DUI suspects

Officers served nearly 40 drunken driving arrest warrants Friday in Yuba and Sutter counties.

Such warrant sweeps are another, perhaps less known, aspect of DUI enforcement.

"The court will issue a warrant when a person (fails to appear in court) or if they violate a condition of their probation," explained Marysville police Sgt. Chris Sachs.

Officers conducted "knock and talk" searches for 38 residents in Yuba County alone on Friday afternoon.

Exact arrest numbers were not available.

Officers on the Avoid the 9 task force made an arrest on their first stop in the 2100 block of Buchanan Street in Marysville. John V. Britton, 33, was arrested on a probation violation warrant stemming from a DUI arrest in February of last year.

"We're going to try to clear some of the ones in our own backyard first," Sachs said. "Then we may go into (Sutter and Colusa counties) if there's time."

Funding for the warrant sweeps, additional checkpoints, saturation patrols and court-sting operations comes from a Office of Traffic Safety grant through the National Highway Safety Administration.