Posted on 05/25/2013 7:14:29 PM PDT by Skooz
SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - As Memorial Day weekend gets underway, law enforcement is out in full force to crack down on drunk driving. But SDSU grad Sennett Devermont, better known as "MrCheckpoint," is also working overtime, publicizing through social media the locations and times of DUI checkpoints throughout San Diego and the rest of Southern California, including Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties. Devermont uses Twitter, Facebook, his own website and text messages to get the word out to his tens of thousands of followers. "When I realized the positive impact it had.... I decided to make the service free," Devermont told News 8. Devermont's attorney, Mary Frances Prevost, says that MrCheckpoint's presence online has helped increase public safety. "When there's more talk about DUI checkpoints and more advertising about them, there is a 20 percent reduction in DUIs and DUI fatalities," Prevost said. Not everyone agrees, including some members of MADD, or Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "While we support the publication of checkpoints as a deterrent to drunk driving, sites like MrCheckpoint alert drunk drivers so they can evade arrest. It's not meant as a positive," stated Pat Rillera, executive director of MADD in L.A. and Ventura counties. Devermont blasts that notion, countering that MrCheckpoint is a public service. "In no way are we for anyone drinking and driving," he said. "That is absolutely not the intention of the website." Devermont said he has plans to expand MrCheckpoint nationwide, and has developed a smart phone app for his service that is expected to be available next month. MrCheckpoint also says that in order for anyone to receive his text messages, they must first sign an online pledge not to drink and drive.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs8.com ...
A drunk who heeds these warnings must be defined as functional.
This service clearly keeps certain segments of certain streets safe.
For what it's worth, the woman who founded that organization left it in the 1980s when she realized it was about raking in money and neoprohibition. She subsequently lobbied on behalf of bars and brewers.
Maybe one day we will have Sweden's 0.01 standard. Meanwhile when it comes to tests for pot in the system, lawyers are already arguing (and getting cases dismissed) saying it stays in the system "but doesn't affect performance/judgment" for weeks after "use".
Anyone feel any safer?
Ask MADD how they feel about texting and cellphone driving. "Not my problem!".
Around here, the locations are published in the papers and/or broadcast on the local evening news....ahead of time.
Old joke: DDAM, drunk drivers against MADD mothers.
The next street over which leads to “the international avenue” has many blue light specials in a 3 block area.
oh thats gonna hurt revenue
Rural area, no “blocks” or “next street over[s]”. Only way out is a U turn and THAT will trigger an intercept.
Or Drunks Against Mad Mothers
I’m in favor of anything that thwarts this kind of end-run around the 4th Amendment.
I wonder if he has a lawyer just to help him to get his story out in a way that doesn’t put him in jeopardy, or if the State is already bending over backwards to make life difficult for him.
They are arguing this because it is true. The tests in use can read positive for weeks or months after last use.
They need a test for the active ingredients rather than metabolites of THC.
Surprised that they aren’t done in Spanish.
Sounds a like a great service. And it won’t affect the worse drunk drivers in SoCal - illegal Mexicans - who can’t read the Tweets and will get nailed in the checkpoints.
No they aren’t. They announce there will be one but they don’t announce the exact location.
You get WV newspapers and TV?
Since checkpoints are more about revenue than drunk driving, I don’t see a problem with this. The cops are more interested in nailing the .08 drinkers that probably aren’t too bad off than the .25 drunks. There are more of them, and many don’t even realize that they have had enough to drink to blow .08.
I stand by my post.
Unconstitutional stops in the middle of the street, blocking traffic for blocks, closing public parking lots to force drivers to go through the checkpoint, which have very little to do with DUI, and are an open fest for police to find something, anything to cite for.
It is like anything. You give government a pass on a possibly good idea, and they take it a mile further. And no court wants to really overrule these checkpoints, as it would overturn all the ‘good’ that they accomplished in taking drunk drivers off the road.
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