From March 13-18, the Colorado Department of Transportation, Colorado State Patrol and local law enforcement agencies will crack down on impaired driving around the St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

“St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday associated with alcohol consumption. We want Coloradans to be safe, and make the smart choice to never drive impaired,” said Matthew Packard, chief of the state patrol.

“The Heat is On” is a campaign of 16 high-visibility enforcement periods funded through CDOT and includes sobriety checkpoints, saturation patrols and boosting the number of officers on duty. In 2019, the St. Patrick’s Day enforcement period resulted in arrests of 336 drivers.

In past campaigns, agencies receiving state money needed to provide overtime in at least 10 of the 16 enforcement periods and only employ officers trained in standard field sobriety testing. The CSP notes that crashes involving alcohol and other drugs tend to be more severe, which is why they are an enforcement priority.

A new factor over this year’s holiday weekend is the growing concern about COVID-19 coronavirus. Denver and Colorado Springs have canceled their parades, and Gov. Jared Polis has declared a state of emergency over the outbreak.