Blaine County law enforcement offering rides over the holidays

The Chinook Police Department, Blaine County Sheriff’s Office and the Blaine County DUI Task Force are offering rides home for people who feel too intoxicated to drive safely.

“If anyone is intoxicated and they don’t want to drive they can call and as long as there is an officer available they will be given a ride home,” Blaine County Sheriff John Colby said.

Colby said this practice of offering rides to the intoxicated has been in place for more than a decade and is available any time of year, but it’s being advertised now because the holiday season tends to see more DUI related incidents.

Chinook Police Chief Elmer Zarn said his agency similarly offers this service year-round and added that bar owners can call on behalf of a customer who they don’t think is in a position to drive, which he highly encouraged them to do.

“If the bars have an intoxicated customer we can go over there and pick them up,” Zarn said. “I’d rather take somebody home then scrape them up out of a ditch some where.”

The Blaine County DUI Task Force came up with the idea to advertise the service during the holiday season a few years ago due to the amount of drinking that tends to go on during that time of year, Colby said.

He said he’d like to see more people become aware of this service and not be embarrassed to make use of it.

“It’s much better to get someone home safe than to have to load them into an ambulance, or take them to jail,” he said.

Colby and Zarn both said they suspect there will be less demand for this service due to the pandemic.

The sheriff’s office has a few people outside the department on stand-by to help get people home if officers are occupied.

“I suspect there will be less participation because of the change in the bar hours and people going to house parties tend not to call,” Colby said, “But I’d like them to call anyway.”

Zarn said he suspects because the bars are closing early people will just move their drinking activities to house or garage parties, which may be a problem because people tend not to call for rides when they’re at those kinds of events.

Colby said engagement with this service varies from year to year, and even though there may be less demand this time around, he and Zarn want people to be aware that it is an option.

“I’d like to see more people become aware of it,” Colby said. “There have been a few years where we’ve gotten quite a few calls and some years where we get two.”

If anyone in Blaine County has need of the service they can call the sheriff’s office at 357-3260 or the police department at 357-3170.