PIERRE, S.D.(Press Release) – South Dakota’s Department of Public Safety has scheduled 14 sobriety checkpoints in 12 counties statewide during the month of February.

The monthly 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. The checkpoints are designed to encourage people not to drink and drive.

Checkpoints are planned for the counties of: Beadle, Brown, Clay, Jerauld, Jones, Lawrence, Lincoln, Lyman, Meade, Minnehaha, Pennington, and Walworth

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.