NATCHEZ — The Adams County Sheriff Office had no arrests for drunk driving over the holiday weekend, an improvement Sheriff Travis Patten said results from diligent work by deputies.

The week and weekends between Christmas and New Year’s, Patten said, often bring with them a rise in drunk or buzzed driving.

“I think that’s a nationwide trend,” he said. “The holidays can be our peak time for this kind of thing.”

Patten said he increases patrol each holiday season to help keep drivers safe.

“Our job is to protect people — and it’s not just from guns and drugs, it’s from alcohol, too,” Patten said. “Our families and your families mean way too much for us to sit idly by and do nothing.”

Patten said 79 people have been arrested for driving while intoxicated in the past two years.

“We have been hard on enforcing this since day one,” Patten said. “The bottom line is we want people to be more responsible, but instead we see people getting lax around the holidays.”

Patten said the fact that Christmas fell on a Monday may also have lowered the number of intoxicated drivers on the road.

“When you don’t have to go to work the next morning, you’re more likely to be a little less responsible,” he said. “Most folks had to go to work on Tuesday.”

New Year’s falls on a Sunday this year, and Patten said he’ll have extra officers on patrol in neighborhoods and in the county.

“We don’t have quotas for this,” Patten said. “It’s not about the numbers. We are taking this seriously because it’s preventable. It’s easily preventable by people being responsible.”

Patten said he believes the tough stance on drunk driving in the past two years is helping to ward off individuals who might otherwise drive drunkenly.

“Our message is clear,” Patten said. “We want Adams County to be known as a place that does not accept that behavior. It’s in people’s minds now.”