Sobriety check point, whadda think??

[PineRidge]

Today in while heading home from a family gathering the traffic on the main route that we were traveling came to a slow crawl. Pretty soon I saw the signs posted sobriety checkpoint ahead.

Not only that but they had several cruisers parked at the side of the road watching the traffic to be sure no one made a U-turn trying to avoid the test.

Seemed to me like they were pulling over the nervous looking drivers or it may have just been a random count, dunno. I personally wasn't waved over.

Let me also say that I don't drink and drive. If I have a beer while out, my wife takes the wheel, as she rarely drinks.

For just a split second I felt nervous. Then I relaxed knowing that these officers were out, trying their best, to head off accidents that may have happened from impared drivers.

I have never seen one of these random stops before, ever. How do you guys feel knowing the law is watching this Holiday?

 

[BlueToy1]

Pretty normal here in Illinois. We do them all the time. If the traffic flow allows it, we normally check every car. When traffic backs up, the detail supervisor will wave cars on through. During last one I was on, we had a drunk nearly side swipe a fully marked patrol car with the emergency lights on. Then he almost hit my Captain and the stopped car he was checking. The first car of the night drove right up to us with a beer between his legs. I don't now why, we weren't hidden.

 

[AndyM]

Mrs.AndyM and I were stopped by one in Lake Milton a few weeks ago. It seemed to be a group effort by the State Park police, the Milton Township Police, and the Mahoning County Sheriff's department.

When we pulled up to the officer standing in the road, I was asked three questions--
Where are you coming from?
Where are you going to?
Have you been drinking?

At first I felt the first two questions to be somewhat intrusive. After we got home, I came to the conclusion that those were good, quick questions that the officers could gauge whether someone was under the influence by the "nervousness" of the person when they answered them. For me the answers were easy, since we were returning from my mother's house in Youngstown, our house was less than a mile away, and I haven't had anything to drink in over eight years.

However, I hear stories on the local radio station where the law enforcement agencies check over 1000 cars in an evening and only find two drivers over the limit. A rate of 0.2% seems pretty good to me on the face of it... If this is the case, it seems the law enforcement officers have done their job in that location and could possibly change their focus to either a new area of the county for DUI's or possibly to a different offense.

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

I think its a good idea. Lost a good friend to a drunk driver several years ago.

 

[George2615]

They are a way of life in my area. Especially on holiday weekends. I personally don't drink and drive. I do have an occasional drink at home though. They usually pick one section of road (a 35 MPH road) around a curve so by the time you see them its too late to turn around. They have cars on both sides of the road with lights on and stand in the middle and check every vehicle going both ways. They look at registration and inspection stickers and ask you a couple questions as you go through. They can usually tell if you've been drinking. I fully support them doing this. Around my area I feel there is too much drinking and driving as weekly police reports in the paper show. I'm glad they do this to take drunks off the road to try and make it safer for the rest of us. The problem I see is that they can't keep them off the road and you see many repeat offenders. To a lot of them having their license revoked means nothing as they continue to drive drunk without one.

 

[MossRoad]

I supposed I feel it is a fine line between looking AT your car and looking IN your car. It is also a fine line between watching your actions as you pass by VS stopping you for quick interrogation. I respectfully vote NO on sobriety check points and vote YES on increasing the penalties for driving drunk. Too many people get off easy with a good lawyer.

 

[rozett]

Here in Maine, we have a new form of the Sobriety Checkpoint... the Suspension Checkpoint. Seems a fair number of drivers who's license has been suspended continue to drive. We had a serious accident on the turnpike a year ago, where a tractor-trailer slammed into a car stopped because of traffic. It squashed the car between the truck and the guardrail, killing the occupant. The driver of the tractor-trailer was under suspension and had his license suspended several times. At a checkpoint in Cumberland County (Portland) last week, they snagged several drivers under suspension.

 

[Thomas]

I am for rolling check points,and like to see more done on those that operate boat well over the limit.

 

[LMTC]

I supposed I feel it is a fine line between looking AT your car and looking IN your car. It is also a fine line between watching your actions as you pass by VS stopping you for quick interrogation. I respectfully vote NO on sobriety check points and vote YES on increasing the penalties for driving drunk. Too many people get off easy with a good lawyer.

I ditto the "No" on what I view as unwarranted searches, and have for years advocated hard time for driving under suspension, doubled if DUI under suspension. My only exception is documentable life-threatening emergency and driver is stone cold sober/straight. Far too many license suspensions simply don't work, and far to many DUI convictions result primarily in suspension. If a person abides by that suspension, well and good...if not, off to jail, do not pass go, period. One of the silliest things I ever read, and I've read it more than once, is a judge giving someone an additional year of license suspension for getting caught driving with their license suspended. DUH!

 

[Ductape]

I'm with MossRoad also. Another huge waste of my money. I also see the coverage of Maine's (since i live one state over)"Suspension Roadblocks", which are the same to me. If there is no probable cause to stop you, me, or your grandmother... why are they doing so? Look at all those cops, cruisers, and such. Imagine the money being spent there. With all the other crime going on....... could all that money not be better spent? I'm not advocating drinking and driving, nor driving after suspension. But when the police "search" my granmother with no probable cause..... i have a problem with that.

Don't even get me started on why grandmothers and children are being searched at airports when so far, 99.9 % of all terrorists are men between the age of 18 and 35 of middle eastern descent !!