Law enforcement officials in Santa Clara County arrested more people on drunken-driving charges this week compared to the same period during last year's holiday crackdown, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

Personnel from 15 agencies within the county arrested 156 people on misdemeanor DUI charges between Dec. 14 and Thursday, compared to 146 over that week in 2011, sheriff's officials said.

The county's Winter Holiday Anti-DUI crackdown includes routine traffic enforcement officers and extra patrols from a special unit called Avoid the 13 in a maximum enforcement period this holiday weekend, according to the sheriff's office.

For this coming Christmas weekend, police officers will set up special DUI checkpoints in Gilroy and San Jose and deploy extra DUI-saturation patrols in Los Altos, Los Gatos, Mountain View, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Palo Alto and San Jose.

The California Highway Patrol will use all available officers during a maximum enforcement period for the weekend, starting today at 6 p.m. and ending midnight on Monday.

— Bay City News Service

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