The Minnesota State Patrol will concentrate its DWI patrols in 13 counties through next fall, in an effort to reduce drunk driving deaths.
The 13 counties, which include the core Twin Cities counties, and make up more than half the state's population. The patrol says that from 2009-2011, those 13 counties had nearly half the state's drunk driving deaths, more than half the serious injuries from drunk driving and more than half the state's DWI citatations.
The targeted counties, in alphabetical order, are:
- Anoka
- Becker
- Dakota
- Hennepin
- Meeker
- Olmsted
- Otter Tail
- Ramsey
- Sherburne
- Stearns
- St. Louis
- Washington
- Wright
Some of the money for the increased patrols comes from a federal impaired-driving crackdown effort.
State officials say a 40 percent drop in the drunk driving fatalities over the past decade can be credited to increased enforcement and more education.