Police are on the lookout this holiday season for dangerous drivers.

Departments statewide are using state grants to fund patrols and roadblocks with the goal of detecting and arresting drunk drivers.

“Traditionally, families get together over the holidays and we want to make sure impaired drivers are off the streets,” said Charles Rumsey, Waterville police deputy chief. “We know the devastation an impaired driver can cause and we don’t want families to suffer a loss during this holiday season.”

The Waterville Police Department will use the $3,500 it received from the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety for the statewide 2011 Holiday High Visibility Impaired Driving Enforcement Campaign for about nine directed patrols and two sessions of roadblocks.

“We’re a very busy city and we struggle to adequately staff patrols,” Rumsey said. “It’s real important for us to get this grant so that those (officers) on the details don’t have to focus on anything else, or respond to any other calls, except to look for impaired drivers.”

In addition to removing intoxicated and otherwise impaired operators from the road, Rumsey said people with arrest warrants and citizens driving without licenses are also discovered during roadblocks.

When the campaign has been completed, Rumsey said the department will report to its strategies and results to the safety bureau.

Its mission “is to save lives and reduce injuries on roads and highways through leadership, innovation, facilitation, project and program support, and work in partnership with other public and private organizations,” according to its website.

The Wilton Police Department will use $3,637 from the program for two roadblock sessions and several extra patrol shifts dedicated to looking for impaired drivers, Chief Heidi Wilcox said.

In 2010, the town police department responded to nine crashes that involved drivers impaired by alcohol, including one in which a 25-year-old man was killed, she said.

Jeffrey Burgess, of Dixfield, died in a single-vehicle crash on U.S. Route 2 that involved alcohol and injured two passengers, Wilcox said.

The holiday enforcement program helps police make residents aware of the consequences of driving while impaired, she said.

In Farmington, the town’s police department will use the $1,731 it received from the program to dedicate extra patrols to look for impaired drivers, Sgt. Michael Adcock said in a news release.

Adcock reminded residents to designate a sober driver if they plan to drink and travel by car.