PIERRE, S.D.(Press Release) – South Dakota’s Department of Public Safety has scheduled 20 sobriety checkpoints to be held in 22 counties statewide during March.

The monthly checkpoints are designed to encourage people to not drink and drive. The checkpoints are funded by the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety and conducted by the South Dakota Highway Patrol with the help of local law enforcement.

Checkpoints are scheduled for: Bennett, Brown, Brule, Clay, Codington, Day, Fall River, Gregory, Hughes, Hutchinson, Jerauld, Lake, Lawrence, Meade, Mellette, Minnehaha, Moody, Pennington, Stanley, and Yankton.

Officials remind drivers not to drink and drive regardless of whether there is a checkpoint planned in their county. People who have been drinking are urged to designate a sober driver or take an alternate form of commercial or public transportation.

Both the Office of Highway Safety and the Highway Patrol are agencies of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.