The Estevan Police Service were out last weekend in full force conducting high visibility check-stops, and they are happy to report that they didn't find a single impaired driver. 

"We did a number of check-stops both on Friday and Saturday night," shared Police Chief, Paul Ladouceur. "Obviously it's pleasing to see when we don't have impaired drivers as a result of those check-stops."

"I think people are starting to get the message. We've said that this year we really wanted to see a decline in the number of impaired drivers in the city and really focus our resources towards that and engaging the community in doing that."

"A lot of people ask the question, "Why do you do high visibility check-stops, people see the lights and they just turn off?" People need to be mindful that we do realize that as a police service. We have floater cars out there. Whenever we do high visibility check-stops, we have vehicles that are looking for those cars that are turning off to avoid the check-stop."

He added that there is a two-pronged approach when it comes to high visibility check-stops,

"One is public education. We interact with drivers. The second is deterrent. When people see us out there and the lights flashing on several roadways when they're heading out to the bars or out to their friend's for drinks or to socialize, it's a reminder that we are out there and to make those smart choices."

"If we're stopping someone when they're impaired, my view is we're too late in the game. They could have already hit somebody, they could have already killed somebody so the key here is deterrent and preventing people from making those choices in the first place."

"The second part is obviously apprehension on impaired drivers. And that's where those floater cars come into play."

"A lot of time we do the high visibility check-stops and we'll also have those floater cars and for a portion of the night, we'll just have those cars roam as well, looking for suspected impaired drivers."

Ladouceur also adds that he hopes last weekend was the start of a trend in seeing no impaired drivers.

"It's great to see that. It's the hope we want that we're out there looking but we just can't find them, that's what we want to see."