Posted on 02/17/2010 8:16:37 AM PST by granite
I’ve commented repeatedly in the past about how DUI roadblocks (MADD prefers the less oppressive term "sobriety checkpoints") are inefficient at apprehending drunk drivers. See Do DUI Roadblocks Work?, Do DUI Roadblocks Work (Part II), As a means of apprehending drunk drivers, even law enforcement admits they are only effective as a deterrent — i.e., keeping people off the streets. See DUI Logic: Roadblocks Effective – Because They’re Inefective, Purpose of DUI Roadblocks: "Shock and Awe".
So why are cops using more and more DUI roadblocks? Simple: They are goldmines. See DUI: Government’s Cash Cow, What if the Cash Cow Goes Dry? and How to Make a Million in the DUI Business.
A quick refresher:
1. It is illegal to stop a citizen without probable cause to believe they have violated the law.
2. A roadblock constitutes a stop without probable cause.
3. The US. Supreme Court ruled in Michigan v. Sitz that although a DUI roadblock does constitute a violation of the Fourth Amendment, the governmentalal interest in reducing drunk driving fatalities outweighs the "minimal intrusion" into a citizen’s constitutional rights.
4. Under the decision, roadblocks can only be for the purpose of arresting drunk drivers. However, as with any investigative detention, if the officer finds other violations of law during the roadblock stop, he does not have to ignore them.
So…A cop can’t stop you to check for registration or license, possible equipment violations, open containers, seat belt checks, etc. But if they throw up a DUI roadblock, they can screen hundreds of drivers for anything they can find. Result: citations, arrests, impounded vehicles — and an invaluable source of revenue for local governments. See, for example, DUI Roadblock: 1131 Stops, 114 Tickets, 0 DUI Arrests, Another "Successful" DUI Roadblock: 3000 Drivers Stopped, 0 DUIs.
The following is a story from yesterday’s news by investigative reporter Ryan Gabrielson, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting:
California Cops Exploit DUI Checkpoints to
Bring in Money for Cities, Police
California police are turning DUI checkpoints into profitable operations that are far more likely to seize cars from unlicensed minority motorists than catch drunken drivers.
Berkeley, CA. Feb. 13 – An investigation by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley with California Watch has found that impounds at checkpoints in 2009 generated an estimated $40 million in towing fees and police fines – revenue that cities divide with towing firms.
Additionally, police officers received about $30 million in overtime pay for the DUI crackdowns, funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety…
In the course of its examination, the Investigative Reporting Program reviewed hundreds of pages of city financial records and police reports, and analyzed data documenting the results from every checkpoint that received state funding during the past two years. Among the findings:
• Sobriety checkpoints frequently screen traffic within, or near, Hispanic neighborhoods. Cities where Hispanics represent a majority of the population are seizing cars at three times the rate of cities with small minority populations. In South Gate, a Los Angeles County city where Hispanics make up 92 percent of the population, police confiscated an average of 86 vehicles per operation last fiscal year.
• The seizures appear to defy a 2005 federal appellate court ruling that determined police cannot impound cars solely because the driver is unlicensed. In fact, police across the state have ratcheted up vehicle seizures. Last year, officers impounded more than 24,000 cars and trucks at checkpoints. That total is roughly seven times higher than the 3,200 drunken driving arrests at roadway operations. The percentage of vehicle seizures has increased 53 percent statewide compared to 2007.
• Departments frequently overstaff checkpoints with officers, all earning overtime. The Moreno Valley Police Department in Riverside County averaged 38 officers at each operation last year, six times more than federal guidelines say is required. Nearly 50 other local police and sheriff’s departments averaged 20 or more officers per checkpoint – operations that averaged three DUI arrests a night…
With support from groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, California more than doubled its use of sobriety checkpoints the past three years.
State officials have declared that 2010 will be the “year of the checkpoint.” Police are scheduling 2,500 of the operations in every region of California. Some departments have begun to broaden the definition of sobriety checkpoints to include checking for unlicensed drivers…
It’s probably just a coincidence that California, on the verge of bankruptcy, has decided to make this the "year of the checkpoint".
(Thanks to David Baker.)
>“but it is true in NY. You do not have a “right” to drive. It is a privilege which can be taken away by the state.”
Bullshit.
The state may claim it is so, but it is NOT.
I pay taxes in NY. Those taxes are used to pay for roads. They are MY roads as much as anybody’s. I have a RIGHT to use them as long as I don’t interfere with others rights to use them. Of course I must follow the law and must not endanger others. However, for the state to RIGHTFULLY take away my right to drive, they must use due process. But that is too much work so the dirty little weasels came up with this “privilege” ruse so that they can just do what ever they want WITHOUT due process.
Show me where it says in the Constitution that the Govt. can tell me I can’t use a publicly funded road.<
I just love the argumentative tones from people. As if I am your enemy. Yep I invented the laws of the state. That was me. And if i arrest enough drunks I get a free microwave oven ... whoopie!
Let me ask you a question, you have a drivers license?
lets presume .. for the sake of argument that you say yes.
Other people have them as well.
And some people are refused them because they are idiots behind the wheel and they may kill you because they don;t know how to drive. maybe nice people, but they have collisions with others, are too old, have medical conditions which preclude them from driving, there are just a ton of reasons. But the bottom line is some people get them and some don’t.
Why do they do this? to be mean? To make you beholden unto them? To exert their authority over people?
No it is so that everyone can be a bit safer by taking some others off the road who just can’t drive.
maybe someone who just doesn’t care how they drive and don’t think it is a bad thing to say, do hit and runs. Damaging other peoples property, hurting people, then never stopping to even check on them.
See they pay taxes too .... but that doesn’t mean that they should be allowed to drive.
Now you can take the constitution and READ it really well.
You will see that the CONSTITUTION gives power to the states to make their OWN LAWS.
Get it??? Amazing concept I know.
Now you can swear, rant rave whatever. But unfortunately, if you license is revoked by New York State, I don’t think that they care that you pay taxes. Maybe you can tell it to the administrative law judge. But he probably won’t care either. You can demand a lawyer for him to say it, but the administrative law judge will probably tell you, your not entitled to one at an administrative law hearing.
Yes indeed ... see, all your ranting raving and sanctimonious nonsense of “tell me where” and “the state may say but” you are far more powerful than an entire state .. i know.
(if you note my sarcasm at this point, you may be brighter than you sound)
See the point here that so many of you have failed to realize is that for the most part, I am .. or was on your side. But being such bigots as many are in this thread, you failed to take the time to realize what I am about. Instead you stereo typed me, and pounced.
In actuality you lost a very good resource for the future that you could have tapped into.
So here’s a clue, pay a lawyer BIG money for advice that I was more than willing to give for free and try to help people out here.
Of course that’s your right .. it’s in the constitution. We call it free speech, you attack someone for no reason other than their profession. Knowing nothing about them and gee .. surprise surprise they don’t care about helping you anymore.
Aren’t YOU the smart one.
You seem to have attributed an awful lot to me that I never said. I never said YOU make the law nor did I ever say YOU are the enemy.
Nor do I object to people being restricted from driving due to the examples you cited AS LONG AS DUE PROCESS is followed rather than have some bureaucrat make a decision with the stroke of a pen. There should be burden of proof on the state before they take away a person’s right to drive. (I never said rights can’t be taken away - we put people in jail all the time)
I don’t dispute that the STATE says it is a privilege. I don’t agree with the state and I really do not care what a bunch of lawyers say about it.
They just get away with it because they get to make the rules.
I just want them to have to follow due process when they accuse a person of violating the law.
As it is they can (and do) pull licenses for any number of things having nothing to do with how you drive. For example if you owe child support they can pull your license. How does not paying child support have anything to do with driving or public safety?
I object to the state having the power to stop a person from driving without using due process. I object to the state having the power to use motorists as a source of revenue just because they can. I object to the state thinking they can stop and interrogate me any time they wish just because I am driving. Just because they claim it is legal does not make it morally right.
How about they just leave me the heck alone as long as I don’t bother anybody else, and as long as I don’t endanger anybody else, and as long as I don’t interfere with any other person’s right to use the road?
Can I do anything about it? Nope. They have the the power and the Troopers so they get to do it their way and I just have to go along.
But I don’t have to like it, and I don’t have to swallow the “driving is a privilege” mantra either.
Here you will find solutions.
1. Absolutely forbid any and all federal dollars going into any State, County, or local LE. That will return control of local LE to local levels.
2. DUI is treated like TSA treats air travel. A few crazy Muslims make them treat the entire world like criminals and they spend time looking up granny’s skirt instead of profiling Arab Muslims. In a similar vein instead of having these enormous drag nets trying to catch everybody, concentrate on people who create property damage while drunk. If you crash your car or kill somebody it’s over. If you kill somebody driving drunk it’s murder one. If you crash your car drunk, you never drive again. Period. That way you don’t harass the whole world over a few drunks.
3. Down size the PD by 2/3, and force them to solve property crimes not chase revenue pulling over granny.
The fact that government employees are leeches on the backs of the productive members of society? Well that will never change. Government employees chose government work a long time ago. Many years ago I looked at my options as a young college grad and I considered LE but turned it down because I wanted to be an economic producer. The day John Q Public has had enough of high taxes and LE gauntlets and decides he doesn’t want to go to work any more government employees are out of work. You need the good will of the communities you serve. Instead cops line the medians at busy intersections shining flashlights into granny’s minivan.
I don’t want to live in North Korea. But with the active, aggressive omnipotent law enforcement presence I find in my sleepy little town it feels like North Korea on Kim Jung Ill day.
Your reply is waiting in your mailbox.
Yesterday I was being an ass. I apologize for being an ass. You are a good person and I personalized my frustration with LE.
Thank you for the severe and rigorous service you have given to your community.
Thank you sir. I wish your dealings had been better in the past. I really do.
I hope that discussions here can be beneficial to everyone and workable solutions can be attained. Then implemented on local scales.
That way that the men and women who want to serve in a professional manner can. That way all of them can enjoy the respect you rightfully pointed out needs to be earned.
Thank you
Bob
The vast majority of DWI arrests involve nothing more than an effort to control the population based on ginned-up statistics and hysteria.
My son was prosecuted and convicted with a .02% BAC level.
Justify that, officer.
Sorry, you are wrong.
There is no presumption of innocence in DWI cases, as the "offender" is punished multiple times before getting to court and there is a bizarre stretch of imagination where a .08% BAC is a presumptive condition of guilt.
I really don’t have to justify anything to you. I didn’t make the arrest did I?
I have friends that have been written DUI tickets, one in phoenix for a .02 and one in Seattle for a .03. As well as two others, one of which was .08 and the other was .12. I know how their cases went (yes, you’ll notice that two of them are BELOW the limit, but that is another story).
Since there would be no evidence against me whatsoever in such a case, there would be nothing on which to base a case. Turning around before a checkpoint, if a reasonable explanation is given, would not be evidence. It IS a free country to some degree, at least. The law states you cannot turn around to avoid a sobriety checkpoint. If I am completely sober, then they cannot even prove I had incentive to avoid it.
Now, all bets are off with small town thug cops. Then it is mano a mano.
Nope, just your "Brothers In Blue"
For most reasonable people, that would present a problem.
If you know people arrested for DUI who tested below the (artificially low) .08% BAC, how many of your fellow citizens know at least the same number?
Why would anyone want to test a system and a machine wherein the odds against you are so insurmountable and the penalties so extreme?
Do not attract the attention of "law enforcement". You cannot and will not win as long as this witch hunt is on, which appears to be forever, with ever decreasing standards for arrest, search, seizure, conviction and asset forfeiture.
Welcome to Amerika.
One of the low ones was a friend that used to live in Phoenix. The other is a friend that is still steeped in attempting to make music his main source of income. He said to the cop, when he pulled him over, “If this is possible, why do bars have parking lots?”
He went YEARS without a license because he did not have the funds to fight it.
Meanwhile, my friend from Phoenix was a manager at a large company. She DID fight it. It cost her almost three thousand dollars, but she WON. And she isn’t the only one. In fact, here’s a fun story:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-05-29/news/heather-squires-was-arrested-for-dui-without-drinking-a-drop-of-alcohol/
And this: http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2007/10/
I know I read some news stories a year or so ago that so many people in Arizona are fighting these “below the limit” arrests that the leaders were talking about backing off. Don’t know where it went though.
>Nope, just your “Brothers In Blue”<
Maybe, maybe not. I don;t support everyone because of their profession.
If they are wrong, they are wrong, if they are right then that stands on it’s own.
But face it, there was a prosecutor and judge involved as well. Now if you want to stop flaming me because of my profession, we can discuss it. If not, then don;t bother.
If you really don’t understand what happened, why it happened, or think you have a civil rights violation. I will be more than willing to try to help you.
But your name calling for no reason is uncalled for.
Aside from that, if you have taken offense to my true comments, I apologize.
My only son is on the way to becoming a Law Enforcement Officer, which is a severe disappointment to me.
Nonetheless, I pray for his safety and reason. I will add you to the prayer list.
Thanks for the links.
Every reasonable human being should be outraged.
I appreciate the prayers and hope for your son’s safety as well. Try not to be too disappointed in him. He is going to need all the support he can get.
If I can be of assistance, let me know.
Best wishes.
I can say this for the kid:
He has at least recognized that arrest and incarceration is a growth industry.
It is a growth industry. Your right, look at the amount of people incarcerated in America today. More than any other country in the world.
Many people are in jails for the dumbest things too. I can’t imagine what goes through some judges minds. I also think that some officers just go too far and are overly aggressive. Some things are pet peeves, some are just stupid that they give tickets for or arrest people for. All cops are not created equal, just like any other profession.
I just hope that your son does one thing. Treat other people as he would want his family treated. It will make a world of difference in how people treat him on the job. It did for me. Which is why I take such great offense sometimes when i am generalized as a man who abused my position. I really did try to do law enforcement with compassion for the people I was dealing with.
They will train him so much how to be on guard against people who want to do him harm. certainly that is a risk and goes with the job, but they seldom teach people to just be conscious that they are dealing with some people who have never had contact with a police officer before. It is too easy to forget.
I again urge you to talk to him about his days and although your dissappointed in his choice. Try not to show it, he may tell you things that change your mind on some issues if he is comfortable discussing them with you. Even if you don’t change your mind on anything, I am sure that you still hold him close in your heart and he will need your moral support desperately.
I don’t know where you are, or where he will be working, but some places are just bad. Some nothing goes on. But generally it is a hard job on family relations and the persons outlook on humanity itself. Cops don’t have a lot of good contact with people. It is always when they are in trouble or distress. It tends to change people.
You can help so that change is in a positive way.
My best to you and yours sir.
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