PIERRE, S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) – The South Dakota Highway Patrol has announced sobriety checkpoints will be conducted in 15 different counties during the month of December. These checkpoints will take place in the counties of Beadle, Brookings, Brown, Charles Mix, Clay, Codington, Davison, Day, Jackson, Jerauld, Lawrence, Meade, Minnehaha, Moody, and Pennington.

The monthly checkpoints are designed to discourage people from driving impaired. The checkpoints are funded by the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety and conducted by the South Dakota Highway Patrol with the help of local law enforcement.

Officials remind drivers that impaired driving is never a good idea regardless of whether there is a checkpoint planned in their county. People who have been drinking are urged to designate a sober driver or take an alternate form of commercial or public transportation.

Both the Office of Highway Safety and the Highway Patrol are agencies of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.