It will be an especially bad idea to drink and drive in Lawrence in coming weeks.

Area police will hit the roads to do extra traffic enforcement between Aug. 17 and Sept. 4 as part of a statewide campaign aimed at cutting down on drunken driving around the Labor Day holiday.

“They’re going to be out looking really hard,” said Steve Halbett, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Transportation’s bureau of traffic safety. “There’s not going to be anytime when it’s going to be safe for a drunk driver to be out.”

The extra patrols are part of a program called “You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.”

It’s one of four times this year in which Kansas police agencies get money through the federal government to pay officers’ overtime wages for extra traffic enforcement. So far this year, the program has cost $413,000 statewide.

As part of the program, Lawrence Police will conduct a citywide “saturation patrol” from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Aug. 19 and a DUI check lane from 12 a.m. to 3 a.m. Aug. 20 along with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

Other agencies doing extra enforcement this week include the Kansas Highway Patrol and the sheriff’s offices in Johnson and Franklin counties.