Law enforcement joins forces to patrol highways over Labor Day

Law enforcement officials from all over the Upstate gathered Thursday night at Golden Corral in Spartanburg to eat dinner before heading out to patrol interstates stretching across three states.

Hands Across the Border, a law enforcement program designed to help catch drunken drivers, speeders and other drivers violating the law, will conclude on Monday.

The program includes law enforcement agencies from South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

So far this year, there have been 629 fatalities on South Carolina highways, said Capt. Michael Warren with the S.C. Highway Patrol. This program is designed to hopefully avoid adding to that number over the Labor Day holiday weekend, Warren said.

By working together with multiple agencies, Warren said it shows a joint effort between all law enforcement and shows the public their ability to work together.

During the holiday weekend, there will be checkpoints at various locations on South Carolina highways.

Warren said there are a lot of activities going on this weekend. There are multiple college football games, a NASCAR race at Darlington Raceway and people traveling for Labor Day weekend.

Law enforcement officials want to make sure people are enjoying these events as safely as possible, Warren added, and they plan to be around those areas.

“We're going to use a lot of our manpower around those events because that's where we know there will be drinking and driving,” Warren said.

Warren urges anyone who sees something unusual while traveling on state highways this weekend to dial *HP and a unit from the highway patrol will respond to investigate the call.

This story was originally published September 4, 2015 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Law enforcement joins forces to patrol highways over Labor Day."