Avoid trading yuletide cheer for cold steel bars by skipping the booze-fueled ride with buddies. Getting behind the wheel after a few cold ones is against the law everywhere, and this season, New York’s finest are on high alert to nab anyone thinking they’re untouchable.

The annual “Drive Sober Or Get Pulled Over” enforcement blitz is already under way with police across the state spending extra time on patrol doing little more than watching for drunk drivers.

And they know where to find you.

Oft misunderstood by drivers is that police don’t always rely on the random nature of events to catch drunk drivers. They use their experience and information gathered from behavioral patterns to determine exactly where drunk drivers are likely to be and when they are likely to be there. That place, at that time, is where police station themselves. They might conduct a DUI enforcement zone or they might conduct saturation patrols in the area during a given time of day. Whatever they do it is aimed squarely at catching drunk drivers and it always delivers.

Nobody likes to waste time and just about everybody likes to be excellent at what they do. This includes police officers looking to catch drunk drivers and get them off the street. Not only do they want to be great at what they do, they also have firsthand knowledge of just how dangerous drunk driving is and consider it a critical part of law enforcement work to keep the public safe from the danger presented by people who choose to ignore the law.

If you live New York, or any where in the country for that matter be careful this holiday season Research shows that the number of drunk drivers on the roadways increases 10 percent or more during the holidays. Police will be out in force to counter this surge but it seems likely at least some people will still find a way to get behind the wheel of their vehicle after downing a few beers (shots of whiskey or glasses of wine–whatever) and take their life and the lives of everyone on the road with them, in their hands.