IT IS that time of year again. Barely have the Christmas decorations gone up in the shops offering the promise of cheer and goodwill - and increased takings for the traders - before the police start depressing us with the carnage of an anti-drink driving campaign.

And this year's campaign really is brutal, with victims in body bags and roadside heart massages. It is unpleasant viewing on the television, scheduled among the jingly, glitzy adverts for the latest must-have presents.

But it is also necessary. Anyone who drives while under the influence of alcohol is a potential killer. And a selfish fool.

This year, as well as the shocking adverts, the police have a couple of new weapons in their armoury with which to fight the seasonal menace. There will be roadside breathtests of anyone suspected of drink-driving - as opposed to only after they had been involved in an accident or an incident. This probably does infringe a person's civil liberties but, just like closed circuit television cameras in shopping centres, if you are innocent you have nothing to fear.

The second weapon is the promise of intelligence-led operations where officers will target the pubs and the roads used by known drink drivers.

This, too, seems sensible. Most communities seem to have a couple of individuals - usually middle-class and male - who believe they are above the law. You can see them in pubs and, particularly at this time of year, at office parties. Brash and loud, fortified by drink, they know they are too good a driver to have a mishap on the way home, no matter how many beers they have sunk.

And this is where the ordinary sober person waiting for a taxi can add to the police's intelligence. A quick phone call - you could even make it on the mobile you are bound to get for Christmas this year - to your local station and the police will know who to be on the look out for.

Or, to adapt the police's brutal message, shop a drunk before he kills your kid