MORRISON, Ill. — Whiteside County Sheriff John Booker made it clear to residents during St. Patrick's Day.
"If you're going to drink, do it responsibly, and have a designated driver," Sheriff Booker said. "Our ultimate goal is to have zero arrests ever for DUI."
Booker and his team were able to reach that goal, announcing that zero arrests were made during their St. Patrick's Day enforcement period. That period began on March 10th.
Despite seeing no arrests during the week, Booker said the county did make two DUI arrests two days prior to the start of the enforcement period.
"DUI arrests unfortunately still happen but we are looking for ways to bring those numbers down." Booker said.
In 2022 alone, Illinois law enforcement arrested more than 20,000 people for DUI. Owner of DUI Services in Rock Island, Dwayne Hodges, sees that first hand.
“I would say 75 to 100 on a monthly basis that I'm dealing with," Hodges said. "Whether I'm doing classes with them, doing one time evaluations, I'm always looking to help.”
Hodges says he makes it his goal to help people with past DUI records.
“The whole idea is to prevent this from happening again because if you get the education, you're going to learn from it to never repeat that again,” Hodges added. "I tell parents and anyone who educates, it's important to teach our children about this. It's a hard subject to talk about but it's an important one."
According to Hodges, 87% of DUI arrests, are first offenders. On average, a DUI can cost from $10,000 to upwards of $200,000.