Memorial Day Weekend DUI Enforcement in Colorado: What to Expect and What to Do If You’re Stopped

Published May 18, 2026 | By William Bacharach, Bacharach Law — Denver Criminal Defense

Memorial Day weekend is the busiest DUI enforcement weekend on the Colorado calendar. If you’re driving anywhere on the Front Range between Friday, May 22 and Monday, May 25, you should know that the number of patrol cars on the road this weekend will be three to four times what it is on a typical weekend, that checkpoints will be set up in predictable locations, and that the saturation patrols are specifically designed to find drivers who have had even one or two drinks.

This is not a guide on how to evade enforcement. This is a guide on what the law actually says, what the police are trained to do, and what your options are if you find yourself on the side of the road with a flashlight pointed at your face.

Why Memorial Day Weekend Is Different

CDOT runs a coordinated statewide enforcement push called “The Heat Is On” sixteen times a year, structured around major holidays and large public events. Memorial Day is the first push of the summer driving season and one of the most heavily resourced of the year. The 2025 Memorial Day enforcement period coordinated the Colorado State Patrol with 77 local law enforcement agencies. The 2024 enforcement period produced 718 DUI arrests across the state in seven days.

Drivers may see sobriety checkpoints, saturation patrols, and additional officers specifically dedicated to impaired driving enforcement. CDOT publishes the full enforcement plan, the list of participating agencies, and the locations and date ranges for sobriety checkpoints in advance of each enforcement period. If you want to know what is happening in your specific area this weekend, the authoritative sources are CDOT’s campaign page at HeatIsOnColorado.com and CDOT’s traffic safety reporting portal at codot.gov/safety/traffic-safety-reporting-portal, which lists each participating agency’s plans.

What this means practically: the chance of being stopped after a single drink is higher this weekend than at any other point until Independence Day. Officers are looking for any pretext, such as a partial lane drift, a brake light out, a slow merge, that justifies an initial stop.

What to Do If You’re Pulled Over

If you see flashing lights behind you, the next ninety seconds matter. The actions you take in those ninety seconds will be the foundation of either your defense or the prosecution’s case.

1. Pull over promptly and safely. Use your turn signal. Pull as far to the right as possible. Turn off your engine. Turn on your interior dome light if it’s dark out. Place your hands on the steering wheel at the 10-and-2 position and leave them there.

2. Be polite. Stay quiet. Greet the officer. Provide your driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance when asked. Do not volunteer information. Do not explain where you’re coming from, where you’re going, or what you’ve had to drink. If asked “have you had anything to drink tonight?” you are not required to answer, and you should not. A polite “I’d rather not answer that, officer” is your strongest response.

3. Decline roadside maneuvers. The walk-and-turn, the one-leg stand, and the horizontal gaze nystagmus test are voluntary. You are not required to perform them. Officers will often ask you to participate and share how they are voluntary at the same time they ask you to do roadsides. They are designed to produce evidence that you are impaired, not evidence that you are sober, even sober people fail them at rates between 30 and 50 percent. You can politely decline: “I’d prefer not to perform any roadside tests.”

4. Decline the portable breath test (PBT). Under Colorado law, the handheld breathalyzer offered at the roadside is voluntary. Refusing it does not trigger the express consent penalties. You can say: “I’d prefer not to take the portable breath test.”

5. If arrested, you should be advised of Colorado Express Consent. This is where Colorado law changes. If you are arrested for DUI, the chemical test, an evidentiary breath test or a blood draw is not voluntary under Colorado’s express consent law. An officer must inform you of this fact and offer you your choice of test unless the officer reasonably suspects impairment from drugs in which case they can insist on a blood draw. You also have the right to refuse testing, however, refusing triggers an automatic one-year driver’s license revocation, regardless of whether you are convicted of DUI. Your refusal can also be used against you at trial.

6. Say nothing else. Do not discuss the case with anyone at the station, in the holding cell, or on the phone. Jail calls are recorded. Conversations with other detainees are not protected.

7. Ask to call an attorney. You have a right to consult counsel. Exercise it. Call any attorney whose number you have. If you have no attorney, ask the booking officer to provide a directory or to allow you to look one up. But again, say nothing else to anyone.

Understanding the Charges in Colorado

Colorado has three driving-impaired offense levels and they are not interchangeable.

DWAI — Driving While Ability Impaired. Defined at C.R.S. § 42-4-1301(1)(b), DWAI is the lower-level offense. The prosecution must prove that alcohol or drugs affected you “to the slightest degree” so that you were less able than usual to operate the vehicle. A BAC between 0.05 and 0.079 creates a permissible inference of DWAI.

DUI — Driving Under the Influence. Defined at C.R.S. § 42-4-1301(1)(a), DUI requires proof that alcohol or drugs affected you to the degree that you were “substantially incapable” of exercising clear judgment, sufficient physical control, or due care.

DUI Per Se. Defined at C.R.S. § 42-4-1301(2)(a), this is the automatic version: a BAC of 0.08 or higher at the time of driving or within two hours after driving. The prosecution does not have to prove impairment, only the number on the breath or blood test. A defendant can be charged with both DUI and DUI Per Se from the same incident.

Marijuana DUI. Colorado’s THC threshold is 5 ng/mL in whole blood, which creates a permissible inference of impairment under C.R.S. § 42-4-1301(6)(a)(IV). Unlike alcohol, THC is not metabolized at a predictable rate and can remain detectable for weeks after consumption, meaning a driver who is not actually impaired at the time of driving can still test above the threshold. This is one of the most contested areas of Colorado DUI law.

The Chemical Test Question — Why the 7-Day Window Matters

If you refused the chemical test at the station, or if you took it and your BAC came back at 0.08 or above, you have seven calendar days from the date of arrest to request an express consent hearing through the Colorado DMV.

The express consent hearing is separate from your criminal case. The criminal case is in court; the DMV proceeding is administrative. Two different decision-makers, two different burdens of proof, two different outcomes possible. Many people lose their driving privileges entirely because they did not know the seven-day window existed.

If you are reading this after an arrest, the most important thing you can do this week is contact an attorney to request the DMV hearing before the deadline passes.

Penalties for a First-Offense DUI

The mandatory consequences of a first-offense DUI conviction in Colorado include:

  • Up to one year in county jail (no mandatory minimum jail for first offense without aggravators, but court-ordered jail is a possibility)
  • Fines between $600 and $1,000, plus court costs and surcharges
  • 48 to 96 hours of useful public service
  • Court-ordered alcohol education and therapy (Level II Education plus therapy hours, usually $1,500 to $3,000 out of pocket)
  • Two years of probation with monitored sobriety
  • 12 DMV points

A first DUI with a BAC of 0.20 or higher carries a mandatory minimum 10 days in jail. A DUI with a child in the vehicle will likely result in an additional charge for child abuse. A first DUI on top of a prior DWAI is treated like a second offense.

When DUI Becomes a Felony in Colorado

Under C.R.S. § 42-4-1301(1)(a), a fourth or subsequent DUI/DWAI/per-se conviction is a Class 4 felony, regardless of how old the prior offenses are. Class 4 felonies carry a presumptive sentencing range of two to six years in the Department of Corrections.

Vehicular assault and vehicular homicide cases, where another person is injured or killed in a DUI-related crash, are felonies from the first offense. Vehicular homicide while DUI is a Class 3 felony under C.R.S. § 18-3-106(1)(c), carrying a presumptive sentence of four to twelve years.

For Colorado Veterans Charged This Weekend

Memorial Day is the weekend the country sets aside to remember the men and women who died in military service. It is also, statistically, one of the highest-volume weekends for veteran arrests in Colorado; a combination of high enforcement, family gatherings, and the unique emotional weight the weekend carries for those who served.

If you are a veteran who is arrested this weekend, you should know that Colorado has eleven Veterans Treatment Courts across the Front Range, including in Denver, Jefferson, Arapahoe, Adams, El Paso, and Larimer counties. These specialty courts allow eligible veterans to resolve criminal charges through a structured program that addresses the underlying service-connected issues such as PTSD, traumatic brain injury, substance use connected to military service, rather than through standard incarceration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to tell the officer where I’m coming from? No. You are required to provide your driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance. You are not required to answer questions about where you have been, where you are going, or what you have consumed. A polite refusal to answer is not evidence of guilt.

If I refuse the chemical test, can the police still get my blood? In most cases, no, not without a warrant. The arresting officer can apply for a warrant for a blood draw, which are often granted in serious cases (suspected vehicular assault, vehicular homicide). For a standard DUI arrest, refusal typically means no chemical evidence, but it also means an automatic license revocation and your refusal being used as evidence at trial.

What is the difference between DUI and DWAI? DWAI requires proof of impairment “to the slightest degree.” DUI requires proof of impairment “to a substantial degree.” DWAI is the lower-level offense, with shorter jail exposure and a shorter license revocation. In practice, BAC results between 0.05 and 0.079 are typically charged as DWAI, while 0.08 and above are typically charged as DUI Per Se.

Will a first DUI come off my record? No. A DUI conviction is not eligible for record sealing in Colorado.

What should I do first thing Monday morning if I was arrested this weekend? Two things, in this order: (1) Request the DMV express consent hearing if you haven’t already. The seven-day deadline runs from the date of arrest, not the date of release. (2) Contact a criminal defense attorney for a free consultation. The decisions made in the first week about the DMV hearing, about whether to enter Veterans Treatment Court, about how to handle the first court appearance can set the trajectory of the entire case.

If You Were Arrested This Weekend

Bacharach Law represents people charged with DUI, DWAI, and felony DUI offenses throughout the Denver metro area and the Colorado Front Range. William Bacharach is a Denver-based criminal defense attorney.

The first consultation is free. The office is available 24/7 for arrests in progress.

(720) 303-5778 — Available 24/7 Bacharach Law — 130 W. 5th Ave., Denver, CO 80204 Free Consultation Form

Official Colorado Resources

For additional information from Colorado authorities (not legal advice — these are state and federal informational resources):

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Bacharach Law. Every case is different and outcomes depend on the specific facts of each case. If you have been arrested or charged with an offense, consult a licensed Colorado attorney for advice about your specific situation. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

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