Tag: <span>Northfield Police Department</span>

Kathy Cooper, Rice County Safe Communities, alerted me to the new DWI task force, called the MOD-Squad (“Modifying Driving Behavior”).

Griff, as you probably remember from last year, Rice County was number 11 of the top 15 deadliest counties for alcohol-related deaths and injuries.   Unfortunately, we are on the list again… There will be a briefing in Northfield on Friday, December 5 at 2030 hrs.

I blogged last year at this time about Rice County’s dubious distinction of being among the deadliest counties in the state for DWI-related deaths and serious injuries. I guess it didn’t do any good because…

We’re now 8th deadliest. See the poster (PDF).

 
So I attended the Mod Squad briefing last night at the Northfield Law Enforcement Center. (Click thumbnails to enlarge photos.)

    
Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Nancy Silkey and Rice County Deputy Blaine Smith did the presentation. Sgt. Mark Murphy is the coordinator for the Northfield Police Department.  I captured the audio:

Click play to listen. 20 minutes.

 
After the briefing, I watched Deputy Smith place a DWI Arrest Zone sign on N. Hwy 3 by the Dairy Queen.

We’re planning to have Silkey and Smith on next week’s Locally Grown radio show/podcast.

See the Rice County 11/22 press release High Visibility Enforcement Scheduled and the press release of arrests made on Thanksgiving eve titled Coming Soon . . . To A City Near You: Rice County MOD Squad Initial DWI Enforcement Effort Successful in Making the Rice County Roads Safer by Arresting 8 Impaired Drivers.

11:30am update: I’ve added the poster above, as the announcement was just made that Rice County went from 11th to 8th deadliest county in the state.

Here’s the email from Deputy Smith explaining the program: