PIERRE, S.D.(Press Release) – The South Dakota Department of Public Safety has announced 16 sobriety checkpoints will be conducted in 15 different counties during the month of January. These checkpoints will take place in the counties of Aurora, Codington, Edmunds, Fall River, Jackson, Lawrence, Lincoln, Lyman, Marshall, Meade, Minnehaha, Moody, Pennington, Sanborn, and Yankton.

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.

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.