Officer McMahon Gets 7th Top DWI Enforcer Title in 8 Years

When Southampton Village Police Officer Kimberleigh McMahon was awarded this week for making the most driving while intoxicated arrests in her jurisdiction, it was old hat for her. This is the seventh time in eight years that McMahon has accomplished this feat, Village Police Chief Thomas Cummings said.

Cummings said McMahon has always been aggressive with DWI enforcement, and even though she switched assignments in October, no officer in the department was able to catch up to her total DWI arrests for 2012.

At the Suffolk County Police academy in Brentwood Tuesday, County Executive Steve Bellone recognized 24 police officers from police precincts and departments around the county. The award comes under the Special Traffic Options Program for Driving While Intoxicated, or STOP-DWI, a state enforcement program funded by fines levied for alcohol-related offenses and designed to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities on the roads, according to the county executive's office.

“These officers have saved hundreds of lives by making DWI a priority and arresting those individuals who make the irresponsible decision to drive drunk,”  Bellone is quoted as saying in a statement from his office.  “Suffolk County police agencies made over 5,100 arrests in 2012 and more than 15,000 DWI arrests in the past three years. Suffolk County will not tolerate drunk driving on our roadways.  We remain committed to arresting anyone who chooses to drink and then get behind the wheel of a car, endangering the lives of others.”

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