In Tampa there is a public awareness plan to help the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office better deal with  problems when drivers drink and drive, it’s called Operation 3D. The purpose of the program is to support and improve a driver’s willingness to comply with current traffic laws. Awareness and program success include news releases and PSA’s, or public service announcements. These are being placed and distributed through local media and other types of support information. This effort serves to support the enforcement of current state laws by the Sheriff’s Office. Other agencies are being involved to assure an enhanced level of safety for the overall traveling public and for all drivers using the roadways.

In June 2009 the program was focused on all of the Districts. Each night throughout June, a different area was scheduled for this activity. This included anything from heightened patrols, without BAT or transport, to Check Points and saturation patrols. Their purpose was to identify drivers suspected of some degree of intoxication while driving. These have been used from time to time.

For the full schedule showing the June 2009’s program activities, ‘click on’ the term Operation 3D  or you can search the term in your web browser. For example, all Districts of Hillsborough County get coverage at least two or three times during any month the program is used for enforcement. The way Operation 3D works is on a given night in a specific district, say for District IV in Southern Hillsborough County, it may have a heightened patrol and perhaps no BAT or transport for support. Other nights there may be heightened patrols with a BAT and a transport for support. These activities take place between the hours of 10PM and 5AM usually.

Knowing about this program allows the public an ability to plan personal activities to prevent unneeded stops and arrests. Hopefully this helps to change potentially dangerous habits. For example, if half the people who normally don’t consider drinking and driving a problem make plans to prevent the possibility of getting stopped and possibly arrested by staying at friends or having a designated driver that night, the negative statistics that arise from drunk driving may actually go down.

If this awareness creates new habits then the program will have achieved some success. There are two kinds of support being placed in the field. One is the use of a Full BAT Unit with remote booking and transport being provided or no BAT or transport conducting these. A BAT Unit test blood alcohol at remotely at a given location. Sometimes there are none used in a particular District, perhaps on week nights, when traffic is light. However no matter which support is used there can be secondary support, which includes the use of what is described as Heightened Patrol with Check Point & Saturation. In other Districts both the Lowman Check Point and Saturation is used.

The Operation 3D activity during June 2009 planned for 18 events with District positions set up. Through heightened visibility and demonstrating enforcement, the hope is to raise community awareness to the level of change in reducing the habit of driving under the influence or while drunk.