The Fourth of July is a time of celebration, but also a period of concern for law enforcement personnel who will be out in force over the holiday week to catch impaired drivers.

Both local police and the N.C. Highway Patrol are participating in “Operation Firecracker” through the nationwide Booze It and Lose It campaign.

Checkpoints and stepped-up patrols began Monday as part of the special effort and will continue through Sunday in a push to remove impaired drivers from the roads.

The Mount Airy Police Department is involved in the special crackdown as it has been for past holiday periods, which will mean increased visibility on local roadways, a police official says.

“As far as what we’ll be doing, you’ll be seeing more checkpoints on the squad level and more saturation patrols,” Maj. Jeff Wolfe said Monday.

City officers will be focusing on areas where a high concentration of driving while impaired has been noted in the past, Wolfe said.

Exact locations of this week’s checkpoints in Mount Airy have not been released. But areas where license checks tend to be set up include the Bannertown community near The Derby Restaurant, on North Franklin Road at the Pipers Gap Road intersection and on U.S. 52 near the Greenhill Road intersection, among other locations.

The N.C. Highway Patrol is expected to have an increased presence as well, especially on interstates and other major highways through Surry County.

During the Independence Day holiday week in 2008, 377 alcohol-related crashes occurred statewide, resulting in 12 fatalities, according to statistics issued Monday from the office of Gov. Bev Perdue. Of the 377 wrecks, 322 involved injuries.

Officers charged more than 1,900 North Carolina motorists with driving while impaired during the 2008 “Booze It & Lose It: Operation Firecracker” campaign.

In excess of 5,700 stepped-up patrols and checkpoints were conducted last year.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.