The Arizona Department of Public Safety begins an operation today, Feb. 20, to target hazardous driving violations and conduct commercial motor vehicle inspections on two interstate highways.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies will join the DPS Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Task Force for Operation Southern Shield, which will continue through Friday, Feb. 24.

The operation will take place on Interstate 10 from Phoenix to the New Mexico state line and on Interstate 19 from Tucson to the international border.

The task force is comprised of DPS commercial vehicle enforcement bureau troopers and Arizona Department of Transportation enforcement and compliance division officers.

“The focus of this operation is to target hazardous driving violations, conduct commercial motor vehicle inspections and educate drivers on safe and compliant operation in an effort to reduce crashes involving commercial motor vehicles,” DPS officials said in a release.

Non-commercial vehicles that operate unsafely also will be stopped, they said.

Besides the assistance from Pinal County, the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Marana, Oro Valley and Tucson police departments will participate in Operation Southern Shield.