Tennessee residents with virtually any driving experience at all know that state officials and law enforcers don’t mess around when it comes to dealing harshly with motorists they suspect of being inebriated while behind the wheel.

We duly this on our website at the long-established Knoxville criminal defense law firm of The Lanzon Firm, stating that, “Tennessee has some of the stiffest penalties for drunk driving in the United States.”

As routinely as that fact bears out for drivers across the state, it is an even more pronounced reality right now, in the midst of an annual holiday-period enforcement campaign participated in by police departments and related agencies from one end of the state to the other.

The “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” initiative is something that most Tennessee drivers are familiar with, given their recurrent experience over successive years with the amped-up enforcement effort it entails.

Essentially, it is defined by this: a notably beefed-up police presence on roadways spanning the state, marked centrally by roving patrols, sobriety checkpoints and a strategy clearly focused on securing as many arrests and DUI convictions as possible.

“[D]uring the Labor Day holiday,” notes one enforcement principal, “we will make zero exceptions for drunk driving.”

As uncompromising as that comment is, it certainly doesn’t surprise seasoned Tennessee drivers, who know that state law enforcers are seldom in the habit of showing leniency during alleged DUI stops.

The bottom line for state motorists during the current holiday campaign running through Labor Day is this: be careful. Moreover, closely consider contacting a seasoned DUI defense attorney without delay following a DUI-related traffic stop, given the potentially dire consequences that can attach to a drunk driving conviction.