Law enforcement officials enjoyed a relatively quiet Christmasholiday, but expect much more activity this weekend as celebrantstake to the roads for the new year.

“Christmas is always kind of quiet. New Year’s is our busierperiod,” said Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing.

Officials all hope the New Year’s weekend will be as peaceful asthe last, but they aren’t too optimistic.

New Year’s weekend is known for parties and celebrations and isusually much more active than Christmas, said Brookhaven PoliceChief Pap Henderson.

Rushing said New Year’s and the Fourth of July are traditionallythe two biggest weekends for alcoholic excess.

“We plan to have extra guys out and install checkpointsthroughout the county to look for drunk drivers,” the sheriff said.”We haven’t set any certain nights yet. We’ll scatter them outamong different areas and do as much as we can.”

Sgt. Rusty Boyd, public relations officer for MississippiHighway Safety Patrol District Nine, said the MHP will also be outin force this weekend with special emphasis on intoxicateddrivers.

“We’ll have three extra details out this weekend,” he said.

Although no roadblocks had been planned Thursday, Boyd wasconfident troopers would be establishing some over the weekend,weather permitting.

The MHP alone in 2005 logged 19 DUI arrests on the New Year’sweekend and issued 711 hazardous violations, he said.

Public awareness of intoxicated drivers is increasing and thereis more participation in the designated driver program witnessed atroadblocks, he said, but the number of DUI arrests still remain aproblem.

“I think there’s a lot more people in general out there thanthere has been – and that’s more chances you have to find someonewho has been drinking and still thinks he can handle thedrive.”

The city will also heavily enforce DUIs, Henderson said, butthere are no plans to establish roadblocks within the citylimits.

“I think, in the city, more patrolling and visibility is moreeffective. That deters everything,” the chief said. “I have putemphasis to the officers on (DUIs) – but that’s not just for theweekend, it’s year-round.”

Henderson said officers will also be strictly enforcing thecity’s ordinance banning the use of fireworks.

“That’s a big problem every New Year’s,” he said. “We can’tcatch everyone, but those we do catch are going to pay for it.”

For the Christmas weekend, Rushing said his department answered69 calls from Friday through Monday, including four vehicle crasheswith no injuries, and made four arrests on minor offenses, such asdisturbing the peace and public drunkenness.

“There were only 11 arrests during the entire period for allagencies, so it was a good holiday,” the sheriff said, citing jailreports.

Henderson said the city also experienced a calm Christmasweekend.

“The Christmas holiday itself was real quiet, although we hadsome things leading up to it. We had no major incidents,” hesaid.

The chief said his policy during the holidays is typicallygenerous. Traffic violators are generally only cautioned.

“I try to back off the citations around Christmas time if it’spossible,” Henderson said. “People already have a lot of financialconcerns. They don’t need another one.”

Although city and county officials here said the weekend wasquiet, area MHP troopers were very active making DUI arrests, Boydsaid.

“We actually led the state in DUIs with 16,” he said.

In total, troopers logged more than 462 hazardous and 151nonhazardous violations while responding to 14 vehicle crashes.

Boyd attributed the increase in citations to a stronger trooperpresence and not to more activity.

“We had some extra details working during that period, so thefigures are up over last year’s Christmas holiday,” he said. “Itwas almost double the hazardous activities than last year. DUIarrests did double.”

The really good news, Boyd said, is only one accident wasalcohol-related and only two people were injured. There were nodeaths.