With the upcoming Independence Day holiday weekend, the California Highway Patrol would like to remind everyone that all available officers will be patrolling your freeways, and local streets looking for impaired drivers, as well as be vigilant against crimes that could disrupt celebrations.

Over the past couple weekends, Southern Division CHP has used an Impaired Driver Task Force to arrest more than 61 impaired drivers, safeguarding our local community. The Department aggressively pursues its primary and critical objective, to protect lives by taking dangerous drivers off the road.

The CHP encourages everyone to plan ahead if you do decide to drink. It’s as easy as designating a sober driver, calling a cab, staying at home, or call a friend. If you’re arrested for DUI, you could spend up to a year in jail, pay thousands of dollars in fines and your insurance premiums could increase significantly.

Because it’s a holiday weekend, more people are active by going on hikes, shopping and barbequing at family gatherings. Consider, are we are the only ones active? Criminals are on the prowl and one of the easiest, low-risk crimes is vehicle burglaries.

To thieves, property left in cars provides a wide variety of merchandise.

* Laptop computers

* Cell phones

* GPS devices

* Purses and wallets

All these things just scratch the surface of the variety of “window shopping” goodies criminals feast upon. It takes less than a minute to break a vehicle’s window, unlock the door, and remove items left inside. Most of the time, there are no witnesses to these offenses because of the ease and speed it can be done and there’s a higher likelihood of it happening Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Like LAPD says, “Lock it, Hide it, Keep it.”

“If you see something, say something” It’s a fact that certain kinds of activities can indicate terrorist plans that are in the works, especially when they occur at or near high profile sites or places where large numbers of people gather—like government buildings, military facilities, utilities, bus or train stations, major public events. If you see or know about suspicious activities, please report them immediately to the proper authorities.

The California Highway Patrol wants you to push the boat out this Independence Day with energy and patriotism. Raise your spirits and have fun, but remain watchful, designate a sober driver, properly store your valuables, thereby not giving criminals an opportunity, and if you see something that looks suspicious, say something. You can never go wrong by being too careful.