Every Memorial Day Weekend, South Beach becomes a vacation destination for nearly 200,000 people. And with such large crowds, police will be stepping up enforcement.
For one, the Beach will have DUI checkpoints in place. DUI checkpoints give officers a chance to randomly stop cars to see if the drivers are impaired. This also gives officers a chance to investigate other activity in a car, such as drivers without valid licenses and the presence of drugs. A DUI arrest is not the only arrest made during a DUI checkpoint.
Furthermore, license tag readers will scan just about every car that enters the beach, police said. They will also flag stolen cars and check for criminal warrants.
If you are going to be on South Beach this Memorial Day Weekend, be smart. But also remember that police officers may be stressed due to the large crowds and may overreact. For that reason, there will be many "contempt of cop" arrests where you are taken to jail simply because the cop was in a bad mood. I see a lot of these with resisting without violence charges.
If you are arrested on Miami Beach this Memorial Day Weekend, call me.