Upper Saucon Steps up Patrols for Super Bowl Sunday, Lower Milford Unable to Participate

Due to the increased amount of impaired driving typical Super Bowl weekend, police in Upper Saucon Township will be conducting "roving patrols" this weekend.

Super Bowl XLV will be played on Sunday, when the Pittsburgh Steelers battle the Green Bay Packers at 6:30pm.

"We will be taking part in the county-wide DUI enforcement this weekend," said police Chief Robert Coyle. The effort, known as the Lehigh County Regional DUI Task Force, is a grant program which helps departments pay for overtime.

However, no amount of additional funds will allow Lower Milford to participate in the program. Due to 2010 budget cuts, Lower Milford reduced its police force to two officers, and no longer has the manpower to participate in the task force.

"Normally, we do participate," said Lower Milford chief Jon Dondero. "We're members of the task force, but we only have one officer [besides Dondero], and we can't have a shortage of personnel in Lower Milford. If we're on a task force patrol, which could be a checkpoint, our only other police officer could be tied up for hours."

Correction from police chief Jon Dondero:

To clarify the Lower Milford Township Police non participation in the Super Bowl Sunday DUI Roving Patrol event. The Lower Milford Township Police Department is an active member of the Lehigh County DUI Task Force. The Department did not participate in the above event due to schedule conflicts and Officer availability. The department was not excluded because of township budget cuts.

Officers participating in DUI events are paid by granted county / state funds through the task force not through township police budget funding. As always our on duty officers are on the lookout for any criminal activity including DUI during their regular scheduled township patrols. We will continue to provide officers for DUI events when scheduling is practical.