It was a busy weekend for the Lathrop Police Department.

On top of running over 200 calls for service, the agency also managed to identify and arrest five people for driving under the influence – booking all five in the San Joaquin County Jail.

According to the Lathrop Police Department, the drivers were from San Leandro, Stockton, Manteca, and Lathrop.

“The Lathrop Police Department takes traffic enforcement and DUI seriously because we know the danger it puts our community in,” the Lathrop Police said in a statement announcing the arrests. “If you see a suspected DUI driver, please call 911 immediately and be as descriptive as possible because you can help save lives.”

Law enforcement agencies from throughout California often utilize their resources during the holiday season to try and remove drivers that put others at risk – often tapping into grant funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety to cover overtime hours for officers working as part of a saturation patrol operation.

The funding can used to cover overtime for officers working dedicated DUI patrols or for sobriety checkpoints and educational outreach efforts that typically fall on busy holidays or holiday weekends.

While driving under the influence is something that police routinely encounter, statistically the number of people driving while intoxicated will increase from Thanksgiving through the end of the year – culminating on the New Year’s Eve holiday which usually features the heaviest drinking.

Last year more than 1,000 people were killed in DUI-related crashes in California, and 30 percent of all traffic fatalities were tied to alcohol consumption.

To contact Bulletin reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com.