Sheriff's Operation Ghost Patrol Arrested 20 Impaired Drivers Over Halloween Weekend in Hillsborough
Hillsborough deputies made 219 traffic stops during the Halloween weekend DUI operation, arresting 20 impaired drivers and issuing 19 citations as costumed children filled the county's streets.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY - The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has released the results of its Halloween weekend impaired-driving operation. Operation Ghost Patrol deputies arrested 20 impaired drivers, issued 19 traffic citations and made 219 traffic stops while working throughout the county over the holiday weekend, the sheriff's office said in a report read in full by this desk.
The operation ran on the weekend when Tampa Bay's streets were at their most crowded with pedestrians - Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, putting trick-or-treaters and costumed crowds on neighborhood roads after dark. Sheriff Chad Chronister framed the arrests in exactly those terms: 'Irresponsible decisions, especially when so many children and our community were out celebrating Halloween, were met with arrest,' he said.
Ghost Patrol's numbers close the book on a Halloween enforcement weekend this station covered as it unfolded - Tampa police DUI patrols and a Treasure Island checkpoint ran the same nights. Twenty arrests out of 219 stops means roughly one stop in eleven ended with an impaired driver in custody, a rate the sheriff's office presents as the operation working as intended: the stops themselves are the deterrent, and the arrests are the proof it was needed.
