The October 30–November 1 campaign also brought 243 DWI arrests, State Police reported November 13.
This year, the NY State Police conducted a substantial campaign for Halloween enforcement.
By David Laguerre | November 13, 2026
New York State Police issued 7,798 traffic tickets during its Halloween enforcement campaign, the agency announced November 13. The three-day effort ran from Friday, October 30, through Sunday, November 1.
Troopers arrested 243 people for driving while intoxicated and investigated 694 crashes, including two fatal crashes, according to the State Police release. Arrests are allegations, not convictions.
The campaign included sobriety checkpoints and additional DWI patrols. Troopers also focused on speeding, distracted driving, aggressive driving and underage drinking. The Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee partly funded the initiative.
Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration of traffic enforcement.
Selected ticket totals
The agency reported these statewide counts. They are selected categories, not a complete list of the 7,798 tickets.
| Violation | Tickets |
|---|---|
| Speeding | 2,778 |
| Distracted driving | 178 |
| Seat belt and child-restraint violations | 304 |
| Move Over Law violations | 152 |
The agency’s Central New York regional row listed 728 total tickets and 17 DWI arrests. That regional figure is not a count for Utica or Oneida County alone. The release does not provide a county-by-county breakdown.
How the figures compare with last year
For the 2025 Halloween initiative, which ran October 31 through November 2, State Police reported 7,651 tickets and 196 DWI arrests. This year’s totals were 147 tickets and 47 DWI arrests higher.
Those changes describe enforcement outcomes. They do not, by themselves, establish how common impaired driving was among all drivers or whether roads became more or less dangerous. The release does not supply the number of traffic stops or a comparable measure of driving exposure for the two periods.
The crash figure also needs care. The agency said troopers investigated 694 crashes during the campaign, including two fatal crashes. It did not say all of those crashes involved impaired drivers. Nor should two fatal crashes be read as a confirmed total of two deaths.
What Mohawk Valley readers should know
These are State Police results, not a combined tally for every police department in New York. Local police and sheriff’s offices may conduct separate enforcement, so the statewide ticket count should not be described as all tickets issued in the state over Halloween weekend.
The figures were released nearly two weeks after the enforcement period. They describe the completed Halloween campaign, not an enforcement operation currently underway.
Readers can consult the full State Police announcement for its regional breakdown. The release reports enforcement totals but does not identify the people arrested or provide case outcomes.
Source: New York State Police, November 13, 2026. Comparisons above are calculated from the agency’s reported totals. No individual criminal case is assessed in this report.
