The North Idaho DUI Task Force celebrated Super Bowl Sunday, when their team made 10 DUI arrests and had zero fatal or injury crashes caused by an impaired driver.

“Our Super Bowl operation was a success due to everyone’s hard work and dedication to keeping Idaho’s highways safe,” said Sgt. Justin Scotch, task force lead for the Idaho State Police.

The goal of the task force is to keep the community safe from drunk drivers, which they accomplish through community education, or arrests and citations. Typically when arrests go up during holidays or celebrations where drinking is common, injury crashes and deaths go down.

Deputized local law enforcement from more than eight agencies — including ISP, Kootenai County Sheriff’s office, Rathdrum Police, Post Falls Police, and others — coordinated to increase law enforcement presence in Boundary, Shoshone and Kootenai counties and reduce the number of impaired drivers.

During the surge, 19 individuals were charged. In addition to the DUIs, seven people had drugs or paraphernalia seized, one person was charged for driving without privileges and one was stopped for a misdemeanor violation.

The task force works during high risk holidays throughout the year to curtail dangerous driving.

The next DUI targeted push will be St. Patrick’s Day weekend, starting Friday, March 17.