Michigan Sheriff: Random Narcotics Checkpoints Are Totally Constitutional

Reason.com ^ | October 21, 2011 | Lucy Steigerwald

[bamahead]

Genesee County, Michigan Sheriff Robert Pickell is not concerned about the constitutionality of his new method of keeping Flint free of illegal drugs. Fourth Amendment fans, medical marijuana patients, and jumpy motorists are less sure.

According to the Detroit Free Press:

At least seven times [in October] motorists have said they have seen a pickup towing a large sign on I-69 or U.S.-23 that depicts the sheriff's badge and warns: "Sheriff narcotics check point, 1 mile ahead -- drug dog in use."

The checkpoints are part of a broad sweep for drugs that [Pickell] and his self-titled "Sheriff's Posse" said are needed, calling Flint a crossroads of drug dealing ... Pickell said he decided to try checkpoints when he learned that drug shipments might be passing through Flint in tractor-trailers with false compartments.

After some outcry, Pickell's posse have begun making these checkpoints more sporadic. Pickell also admits to using drivers' reactions - say, nervous illegal Uturns- to the warnings as a pretext for pulling them over anyway.

--SNIP--

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that DUI checkpoints were illegal, but the U.S. Court leaves the matter up to the states, under certain conditions. And:

Based on a case out of Indianapolis, the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2000 that narcotics checkpoints where everyone gets stopped on a public road are not legal and violate Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches and seizures, professor David Moran at the University of Michigan Law School said.

[Travis McGee]

A police state is a safe state, comrade!

[savedbygrace]

Pickell said he decided to try checkpoints when he learned that drug shipments might be passing through Flint in tractor-trailers with false compartments.

So, in response to this credible information, Pickell responds by stopping every vehicle in sight at random checkpoints for inspections, rather than just tractor trailers.

Can you say non sequitur? I knew you could.

[Travis McGee]

“They don’t really need a checkpoint. All they have to do is pull over the drivers who make a u-turn after seeing the sign.”

You are closer to the reality than you know. Here’s the SOP on these. They put the “drug checkpoint one mile ahead” a half mile from an obscure exit ramp that has some cover around it due to vegetation or terrain. THAT is where the real checkpoint is located, to catch the early-exiters.

[The Theophilus]

The sign says 1 mile to an inspection station and the rest area or remote exit is just before that.
The fact that you are trying to avoid the inspection area raises probable cause.

So the sole purpose of having the DoT build rest stops along the interstate is for eluding police roadblocks. IOW, if a family has a whiny kid that hast to relieve herself Right Now, that is prima facie evidence proof of a deliberate intent to avoid an unconstitutional search and seizure.

And since when has it been a crime to want to avoid unconstitutional search and seizures? If a person reads about a police road-block at intersection X for four hours beginning at time Y, and that reader decides to take a different route or reschedule their trip - should that thought crime merit a five in the morning armed invasion by the SWAT based on the "fact" that the citizen wanted to avoid an unconstitutional inspection?

Its when I read comments like yours that I am convinced that we have irredeemably lost the Republic.

[RitchieAprile]

It goes back further to Harry Anslinger and his devil weed campaign. Back then they realized that outright prohibition
of the evyl weed was on shakey Constitutional grounds and
formulated a law based on a tax stamp that was impossible to get.

[Terry Mross]

So, I’m on my way to a meeting and I don’t plan on pulling into a rest area ‘cause I’m running late. I drive past and that’s probable cause? Avoiding an inspection is probably cause? Or say I DO pull into the rest area to take a leak. Is that volunteering for an inspection?

How ‘bout when some cop knocks on my door and wants to come in and look around for no reason and I say “Hell, no! Get away from my door, copper!” Is that probable cause? No. The judge is going to want a reason before a search warrant is issued.

Would it be legal if the cops put a sign up at the entrance to the neighborhood that said anyone who moves here will have their home inspected at anytime without a warrant. Would that be constitutional? No. The judge is going to want a reason before a search warrant is issued.

Any unreasonable search without cause is uncostitutional. Just like groping me at the airport. They have no reason to suspect I’m going to blow up a plane.

What cops do and what they should be allowed to do are two separate things.

[KTM rider]

if abortion is constitutional, then this surely is !

a cop has a right to choose what he does with his badge after all....[/sarc],