Posted on 05/15/2007 3:21:40 PM PDT by Rodney King
Checkpoint targets Route 9 travelers By Diana Graettinger Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - Bangor Daily News
TOWNSHIP 30 - A Nova Scotia man was nabbed for impersonating a police officer. For others who found themselves in trouble with the law Monday, it started with an invalid inspection sticker or out-of-date registration.
All ran afoul of a "checkpoint" at the rest area on Route 9 in Township 30.
Almost any day of the week, the area is about as busy as a City Council meeting, but not Monday. The parking lot was filled with cars — both police and would-be violators.
Dubbed Operation Lobster Claw, the checkpoint by the Washington County Sheriff’s Department was set up on Route 9 to stop traffic. Three K-9 units, the Maine State Police Vehicle Enforcement, along with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, also were there.
It wasn’t a roadblock, because roadblocks are illegal, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It was a safety inspection.
"There’s a difference between a checkpoint and a roadblock," Sheriff Donnie Smith said Monday. "We have the legal right to check vehicles. [We] go to secondary [check] if for some reason they stand out, that’s legal," Smith said.
Route 9 is Washington County’s answer to the interstate, so the road was busy on Monday. Police know that drugs come across the border into Calais from Canada and traffickers use Route 9 to hot-foot it to Boston, where prescription medication such as OxyContin and Dilaudid fetch a higher price.
An $80,000 federal grant made the safety check possible on Monday.
"It’s some of the Stone Garden Homeland Security money," Smith said. "What we are doing, we’re just doing an overall check. We’re looking for anything suspicious from illegal aliens, drug trafficking and safety checks."
On Monday, perimeters were set up east and west on Route 9. Sheriff’s vehicles were parked on the side of the road, blue lights flashing. Deputies in bright orange safety vests were in the middle of the road, stopping traffic.
Most people stopped immediately, although one woman kept driving. Maine State Police and a sheriff’s deputy pursued her and found she had an invalid sticker and no motor vehicle insurance. She didn’t get to drive home.
For those people who did stop, deputies ran through a checklist of headlights and turn signals, as well as other safety features on their cars.
Anything out of the ordinary went to a secondary checkpoint — the parking lot at the rest stop where MDEA agents and K-9 units from the Rockport Police Department, U.S. Customs and Maine State Police were waiting.
Immediately upon stopping, drivers were asked to produce a valid license and registration. If anything out of the ordinary appeared, the car was turned over to a dog and its handler.
One man was on probation for sexual abuse of a minor; he was checked. A woman on probation also had her car thoroughly inspected.
The dogs, trained to sit when they score a scent, sat on several occasions. Then it was into the car, where the dogs — their noses working overtime — sniffed under the seats and in glove compartments.
Danielle Littlehale of the Rockport Police Department said her dog Boomer has been trained to sniff out seven drugs. While on the search, the dog had to bypass a small cooler full of food. Littlehale said the dogs have been trained to ignore food.
One woman was driving while her license was under suspension. She also had a prescription for a drug, but it was not in a legal prescription bottle.
Police searched her car and found a locked box — inside were her methadone doses for the week. Police said she’d been on methadone for four years. She was later arrested for having a drug without a prescription.
Another woman also was stopped for a vehicle infraction and had a locked box full of methadone doses. Since she was not carrying anything illegal, she was allowed to leave.
Among the many serious moments, there was some humor. A man and woman were ordered to secondary inspection — it turned out the couple were salespeople for a pharmaceutical company and they had a trunk full of drugs. The police let them go after checking their story.
Deputy Travis Willey of the Sheriff’s department did field sobriety tests on two people. They both passed, but for a few minutes, it looked as though one of them might not be able to walk the imaginary line. Willey said the man was clearly nervous.
"I explained to the gentleman that it’s not against the law in the state of Maine to operate a motor vehicle with prescription medications. However if those prescription medications impair the safe operation of that motor vehicle, it is illegal. It is operating under the influence just like alcohol and anything else," Willey said.
A woman who was stopped had a handgun under her seat; she had a permit.
A man was stopped and summoned for having a usable amount of marijuana. He told the police officer he didn’t know how it got in his car.
One man was pulled over and gave deputies his name and address. A check revealed he was using someone else’s identity. When they asked him again, he gave police another phony name. He was taken directly to jail.
At the end of the six-hour checkpoint Monday, a Nova Scotia man flashed a police badge and identity card from Massachusetts.
He said he had worked for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department in Massachusetts in 1992. The deputies called Massachusetts; they had no record of him. The man was handcuffed and charged with impersonating a public official.
And for those who were booked and bailed, it was one-stop shopping.
The Sheriff’s Department had a van at the scene. Inside were corrections officers who were fingerprinting those who had been charged and taking mug shots.
Also inside was Bob Whitman, bail commissioner for Washington County. He was writing bail tickets and collecting the money.
This town is in serious need of “American Graffetti” on a grand scale.
About 22 years ago I was driving to work from Vineland to Atlantic City in South Jersey. On a back road as I rounded a turn there sat two state trooper cars blocking the road. They asked for the usual driving and vehicle papers and then told me my front tire was bald and they were gonna stroke me a ticket. I pleaded with them not to,as I was barley making a living and my first daughter was just born. I told them I would by a new tire the coming Friday. {Payday) They let me go. Nothing like that has ever happened to me. Glad I’m out of Jersey for good!!
It was a post-9/11 safety checkpoint for the children because it takes a global village and liberty means respecting authority, and if you don’t have anything to hide, you have nothing to fear because the government is here to help. Amd if and of you liberaltarians have a problem with that, it means you hate freedom, you want the terrists to win, you are a drug addict, and you don’t care about women, minorities, or chilrun. Bend over and let us have a look-see.
/bootlick
This is a great thread, reminds me of FR in 1999 or so. It’s nice to see a return to the skepticism of government power.
Interpellation is legal. The roads are public and you aren't the public, so the public can stop you on the public road.
Our local police used to set up “curfew checks” downtown on Friday and Saturday nights. Carded everyone that came through the check point. City curfew was midnight for 18 and under. Curfew no longer exists because of numerous complaints that the police department were getting, including mine.
I was twenty and didn’t own a car, biked to work, and I worked graveyard shifts so being up all night on my days off was just because I didn’t wanna mess up my sleep schedule.
One Friday night an officer stopped my bike at the roadblock...er I mean checkpoint. No I don’t mean waved me down, he jumped in the way and stood right in front of me.
Asked for my driver’s license, which I didn’t have because I didn’t actually own a car. He gave me grief over that. Asked if I had ID. I said nope, don’t need it. They asked me my name and age, didn’t believe me and took me to the curfew violation station where they called parents. I didn’t live at my parents house, I had my own place. Cops wouldn’t let me go until they contacted my parents, or the sun came up.
So at 3:00am the police called my parents. Cop got chewed out for a while, appologized to the phone, walked over, gave me my stuff back and let me go.
At the time I didn’t know it, but now I do because of my experience. Roadblocks...er checkpoints...are illegal search and seizure. Period. There is no need for them at all except to find stuff to arrest and charge people with that wouldn’t have been found through normal means.
township 30 isn’t a town. It is in the middle of nowhere.
JBT’s in Potatoville
Oh and try driving between Tucson and Mexican border towns they all have check points hell they even have some rolling units just to catch illegals which is a good thing NO? Or are you naysayers saying illegals are a Good thing for the US? I did not think so enough said.
WOW...just wow.
THAT'S where its' at!
Around here, DUI checkpoints pop up every week-end; the car is gone over for infractions and God forbid if you had the wine re-fill at dinner.
Proven to be a real cash cow for the county...
Why do they just have Check points anyway? Why not French points, English points, German points, etc? Go figure....! :0 )
Maybe it is time the people do random safety checks of the police departments and politicians. Go in, check the budgets, do background checks,, go to there homes and look in their fridges,,, if they have nothing to hide, why should they fear?
You're fine with being pulled over and constantly searched? Since you have nothing to hide, right?
Assuming you are correct, that doesn't make it right.
Nobody is talking about what’s right here. The legal world is not at all logical nor is what most think it is but holds all trump cards. A map of the real world wouldn’t appear on GoogleWorld but in the law library and would be all the cases ever, which isn’t much of a map since it is also the territory.
I’m mostly in favor, but this can easily degenerate and include arresting for “hate literature” (thoughts)
I had a flat tire on my motorcycle while in the 30 minute wait there one time.
If people want to stop illegals, this is the kind of thing, along with carrying your new tamper proof ID everywhere, that we'll have to put up with.
This is only the beginning of "papers please".
Drunk drivers are erratic. Erratic driving gives the LEO probable cause to search a vehicle. I’ve got no problem with that. But if a LEO decides to “safety check” a vehicle just because he feels like it, that’s unconstitutional, and I’ve about had it up to HERE with the erosion of my rights.
Whatever happened to being secure in our persons, houses, papers and effects?
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