North Las Vegas Police conducting paperwork checks

Thursday, Aug. 27, 1998 | 11:24 a.m.

Police checkpoints have been set up at various sites once each week to check for uninsured motorists and those driving without licenses.

Despite objections from the American Civil Liberties Union, police say the project is paying off.

A total of 400 vehicles were stopped Wednesday afternoon and police issued 41 citations. Half of the citations were for insurance violations, police said. A total of 780 citizen contacts were made Aug. 13 and Aug. 19, and 190 citations were issued, more than half for insurance violations.

The checkpoints will be set up at different locations around the city each week to detect insurance, registration and license violations.

The department insists such methods - known as "administrative roadblocks" address important safety issues and are allowed under Nevada law.

But the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which serves the city of Las Vegas and unincorporated areas of Clark County, has shunned such enforcement measures.

"I would be completely opposed and would not allow anyone in my traffic section to establish a roadblock to check driver's licenses and insurance," said Metro traffic Lt. Joe Greenwood. "I don't believe it's a legal use of an administrative roadblock, though I am not a lawyer."

Police and other law enforcement agencies often set up drunken driving checkpoints. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1990 ruled that danger posed by drunken drivers outweighed the brief intrusion into a motorist's life in such cases.

Gary Peck, executive director of Nevada's ACLU chapter, said his organization "respectfully disagrees with police officials who believe they can randomly stop people and ask for registrations, insurance papers and other documents simply because they want to."