Police arrest 99 people on DWI charges during Memorial Day weekend

Police officers arrested 99 people on charges of driving while intoxicated during the Memorial Day weekend, authorities in Nassau and Suffolk said Tuesday.

This a smaller tally than in the past two Memorial Day weekends.

There were 128 DWI arrests in 2014, and 132 in 2013, according to major law enforcement agencies.

This year, Nassau accounted for 56 of the total, while Suffolk had 43 arrests.

The Nassau police force was responsible for 45 of all of the arrests in that county.

It also got an assist from Long Beach, whose police force contributed seven arrests, and the state park police, which made four arrests, county officials said in a statement.

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and acting Nassau County police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter attributed the extra police patrols that netted the accused drunken drivers partly to the state "STOP DWI" grant program.

On Friday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said that state police would crack down on two offenses -- DWI and driving while distracted -- during the holiday weekend.

The latest Memorial Day weekend arrests in Nassau were made from 7 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Suffolk's arrests stretched from 4 p.m. Friday to 4 a.m. Tuesday.