A national campaign to catch drunk drivers kicks off this weekend and the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Department has a new tool to help catch people driving under the influence.
Friday the department unveiled a trailer filled with equipment like road signs, generators, traffic cones and other things they can use to stop and evaluate drivers during DUI saturation patrols and checkpoints.
The trailer was built by a company in Viola. Sedgwick County Sheriff Bob Hinshaw says the cost of the trailer and the equipment inside was covered by a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation.
While it's first being used to catch drunk drivers, Hinshaw says that will not be its only use.
"This trailer and the equipment in it could also be utilized in the event of a natural disaster anywhere in the region where we need generators, where we need a dry and safe work area," said Hinshaw.
The trailer gets its first use Saturday during a DUI patrol in northwest Sedgwick County.
Hinshaw says in 2010 there were 900 DUI arrests in Sedgwick County; through July of 2011 he says there have already been more than 500 DUI arrests.
