California eyeing sobriety checkpoints

[The Straight Story]

California eyeing sobriety checkpoints


SACRAMENTO, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Police in 150 California cities will begin using sobriety checkpoints in 2010 as part of an attempt to clamp down on drunken driving, state officials say.

Chris Murphy, head of the state's Office of Traffic Safety, said the planned use of sobriety checkpoints throughout the state will serve as a public relations campaign intended to deter people from driving intoxicated, The Sacramento Bee said Thursday.

"It's not about the number of arrests. It's about the deterrent effect," Murphy said.

The state's aggressive campaign against drunken driving will be funded with $8 million in funds thanks to federal grants and will leave California with the most extensive checkpoint program in the United States for 2010.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/12/31/California-eyeing-sobriety-checkpoints/UPI-13361262287198/

[Gman2]

1. It's all about the benjamins

[Ernesto]

2. eyeing?

Shit, DUI checkpoints are a fact of life in my California.

[LeftyMom]

4. Weird. I've never been through one and it's the same county.

Do the Elk Grove cops set them up a lot? I used to work out there, but otherwise don't drive around out that direction too much.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. I've been thru them in Los Angeles. Annoying. By the time your

car gets horned into one, it's too late to turn around. The cop comes up to your window (with kind of an attitude) asking if you been drinking. OMG. I can't think of any situation where cops preemptively ask citizens if they are committing a crime.

[Echo In Light]

3. Standard "official" declination of the obvious: "It's not about the number of arrests....

... It's about the deterrent effect."

[Edweird]

5. Gotta generate revenue somehow.

[pitohui]

7. what are they serious? they're way behind the times

i don't know how long louisiana has had sobriety checkpoints but hell two decades AT LEAST

i thought cali was a big rich state, what the hell did they do w. all the money?

[HopeHoops]

8. PA's had them for years - they even announce them.

They don't say specifically where they will be, but they say specifically WHEN they will be. They only catch the idiots with those. Anyone who reads the paper will know to take the back roads where they can't set them up for logistical reasons.

[MindPilot]

9. "It's not about the number of arrests. It's about the deterrent effect"

That's because when they run a checkpoint they may get one or two low BAC DUI's but they also check license, registration, insurance, and immigration status. They also get to write equipment violation tickets and do vehicle searches.

But that's all OK because "it's a deterrent". House to house searches for child porn would be a deterrent too; how many of the checkpoint advocates would be OK with that?

Sobriety checkpoints are a "papers please" action by the police.

[Roon]

10. When I was young and stupid,,,I drove by one drunk off my ass

but they were backed up so they just waved me on.

[court jester]

11. If someone had told Californians in the early '70s that

by the end of the first decade of the New Millennium they would
have regular police checkpoints/roadblocks and all cigarette smoking
would be prohibited in bars...

They would have said you're a conspiracy theorist

And you wouldn't have had to mention warrantless wiretapping!

BTW, What's with this "eyeing checkpoints" like they don't exist now?
Count on the total number doubling every 9 months or so...


You know you
want to laugh

[saltpoint]

12. The State will institute sobriety checkpoints even as it sanctions and

taxes gas station quick-shops' sale of booze.