Gov. Bill Ritter had said he planned to transfer money from the Law Enforcement Assistance Fund (LEAF), used for DUI checkpoints over holiday weekends, to the General Fund. That would include $375,000 for the rest of 2009 and more than $1 million from 2010.

However, Ritter said on Wednesday afternoon that the DUI checkpoint programs will continue through the start of 2010, meaning the campaigns for Labor Day Weekend, Halloween, the December holidays and New Year's will stay, effectively unfreezing the $375,000 that he had frozen on Saturday.

The program may still lose its funding in 2010.

"I think the difficulty is we know times are tough in the state and they're having to look everywhere for funding the budget," said Stacey Stegman, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation. "The problem though is that this is a very successful program, one that has proven time and time again to improve public safety."

"Public safety is of the utmost importance, and we are going to continue to make sure that our streets are patrolled and that the danger posed by drunken drivers is minimized to the extent possible," said Evan Dreyer, Ritter's spokesman.

The LEAF fund was created in 1983.

Everyone convicted of an alcohol- related traffic offense in Colorado pays a $90 fine, approximately one- third of which goes to the Transportation Department to fund grants for DUI enforcement. The money is doled out to local law-enforcement agencies - this year a total of $1.4 million was available to 56 police and sheriff's departments.

Ritter still plans to ask the legislature to divert nearly $1 million in LEAF money in 2010 to drug- and alcohol-treatment programs - a move that he would like to make permanent.

"That's the unfortunate reality of this budget crisis, is that every decision is difficult, and every decision has an implication," Dreyer said.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) are some of the many groups are hoping that the DUI checkpoints will stay. 

"There's no way of telling how much those preventable deaths and injuries - because of these crashes that could be happening with less enforcement - could be on the rise. And again, I really believe that's on Governor Ritter's head, from taking away this enforcement and funding that's been working since 1983," said Emily Tompkins with MADD.