If you are thinking of drinking and driving during the Labor Day weekend, be warned, law enforcement is not taking excuses or refusals in a concentrated effort to get drunk drivers off the parish’s roads.

State Police Troop L officers, St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office deputies, Slidell police officers and other law enforcement agencies will be out in force, and they will be armed with a new tool: Suspected DWI offenders will not be able to refuse blood alcohol tests, or else they will automatically go to jail.

The “no refusal” crackdown has been used before, according to Trooper Nick Manale, spokesman for Troop L of the Louisiana State Police, and it has worked. If a person is stopped by police and suspected of driving drunk, they will be asked to take a blood alcohol test. If the suspect refuses, a judge who is on standby 24 hours a day will issue a warrant, forcing the person to under go a blood test. If they refuse the warrant, they will go to jail. “It’s a great tool,” Manale said. “It is also a great deterrent to drunk driving.”

Capt. George Bonnett of the STPSO agrees.

“We hardly get any refusals at all with the program,” he said.

The State Police and the STPSO have used the method during the Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends, and seen a decrease in drunk driving and refusals to be tested.

“Refusals have gone down dramatically,” Manale said.

This will be the first time the Slidell Police Department will use the judge and warrant method to fight drunk driving. Department spokesman, Capt. Kevin Foltz said if a person refuses a test, and a warrant is served, there will be trained personnel from the St. Tammany Coroner’s Office that will draw blood from the suspect after the warrant is served.

Foltz said that DWI is not only a national problem, but it is a real menace in the state and in the parish. He said in 2009, there were 409 people killed in alcohol-related traffic accidents, about half of all traffic deaths in the state that year. He said Labor Day weekend is especially lethal. Even though Slidell did not have any traffic deaths last year, thre were five traffic deaths that were caused by drunk drivers.

“We like to focus on holiday weekends, because that is when most drinking and driving occurs,” Manale said. He said the State Police will have two judges on standby, ready to issue warrants.

Slidell Police Chief Randy Smith said he would have extra officers on the streets of the city looking for drunk and aggressive drivers.

“If you are caught driving while intoxicated, you will go to jail, regardless of age, vehicle type or time of day,” Smith said.