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StumbleDUI checkpoint nets 25 arrests
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 | 11:51 a.m.
Sahara Avenue and Boulder Highway
Metro Police and Clark County School Police officers made one felony and 24 misdemeanor arrests on charges of driving under the influence during an eight-hour sobriety checkpoint Saturday night at Sahara Avenue and Boulder Highway.
Thirty officers stopped 2,838 vehicles from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Saturday.
"That's huge," Metro Sgt. Richard Strader said. "That's a lot of cars and a lot of drunks. ... Hopefully a lot of accidents and hurt people that we prevented."
The intersection of Sahara Avenue and Boulder Highway was selected after Metro's crime analysts looked at heavy concentrations of DUI arrests, Strader said.
The checkpoint was part of the Joining Forces effort, where different police agencies work together. The idea is to drive home the point that all police officers are certified throughout the state, and their jurisdiction does not end with a county line, Strader said.
"Just because my patch says Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, if I'm driving through Las Vegas, Boulder City or Henderson, I'm a state of Nevada peace officer and by statute can enforce in any jurisdiction," he said. "We are all POST-certified state police officers."
The checkpoints, partially funded by the state Department of Public Safety's Office of Traffic Safety, are done once a month, he said. Next month, a checkpoint is planned for the southeast part of the Las Vegas Valley, he said.
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Wouldn't it be better to deter people from driving drunk by announcing the checkpoints a bit better? Make the public aware that the checkpoints will be happening on a specific weekend in a specific county. I invite all of these police forces to contact www.DUISPY.com and we'll send the alerts out via SMS Text to our subscriber's cell phones. South Dakota just set up their own site to do exactly what we are doing. We are offering it as a free service to both the community and the police departments.
less than 1% attrition rate is not really very good at all maybe they need to concentrate on the 95 where most drunks like to drive.
25 arrests out of 2,838 stopped motorists equates to less than 1% of the stopped motorists cited.
In other words, greater than 99% of the motorists were needless harassed by this checkpoint deployment.
In the words of Metro Sgt. Richard Strader "that's HUGE!"
LOL
Obviously impaired motorists aren't the social problem Metro's 'twist and shout' banter suggests.
Hey duispy, they ought to call you dipsey. They shouldn't announce them at all. They made 25 arrests and 25 others went another route. and Harley, 25 arrests could be 25 saved daughters or sons, husbands or wives who these drunks didn't kill. Stop with the protecting the rights of the criminals. I'll wait in line to take those idiots off the streets.
If it saves one life - it is worth it.
DUI checkpoints are highly controversial and seriously call into question the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution.
unlike speed crackdowns and seatbelt enforcement days, i do think these things are good.
Harley -- you called this one right on.
ssenjo -- there's also the inconvenient promise from Nevada's Declaration of Rights, Section 18: "Unreasonable seizure and search; issuance of warrants. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable seizures and searches shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue but on probable cause, supported by Oath or Affirmation, particularly describing the place or places to be searched, and the person or persons, and thing or things to be seized."
This tells me if these cops had no warrants this was purely a fishing expedition for this 'twist and shout'
rittergirl -- the Police State relies on good sheep like you to keep saying "good job" while they keep getting bigger and stronger and the People get weaker. You may just sigh and get in line to be searched and seized, obviously some of us will continue to hold their feet to the fire and remind them of their oaths they took before they were set loose with their badges and guns and the paychecks WE provide.
Why not just park a few cruisers outside the bars? Patrons will see them there and think twice about driving after having a couple too many. If not, pull over the "weavers" and arrest them. Might as well focus your effort at the source, or at least the source of a lot of drunk driving.
Or just get your asses out there and patrol. I see so many drunks, red light scofflaws and speeders every day that if I were part of Metro I could personally fill their coffers and reduce the need for another bond measure for another needless raise.
Constitution buffs might want to read Michigan Dept. of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444. The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that suspicionless sobriety stops met the fourth amendment standard. (Liberal justices Brennan, Stevens and Marshall dissenting. Yay liberals!)
I'm all for the police departments doing these every day of the week, every week of the month, and every month of the year. We can save 1000's of people killed or maimed by unremorseful drunks and druggies every year.
Thanks for the heads-up Auslander, the following results should be SOBERING evidence to those supporting sobriety checkpoint tactics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_De...
In the state of Michigan, the state police adopted the practice of using random sobriety checkpoints to catch drunk drivers. A group of Michigan residents sued on the grounds that their Fourth Amendment rights prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure were being violated.A sobriety checkpoint is usually operated at night at an unannounced location. Surprise is crucial to its method. The test operation conducted by the Michigan State Police and the Saginaw County Sheriff's Department began shortly after midnight and lasted until about 1 a.m. During that period, the 19 officers participating in the operation made two arrests and stopped and questioned 124 other unsuspecting and innocent drivers.1 It is, of course, not known how many arrests would have been made during that period if those officers had been engaged in normal patrol activities. However, the findings of the trial court, based on an extensive record and affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals, indicate that the net effect of sobriety checkpoints on traffic safety is infinitesimal and possibly negative.
[19 officers made 2 arrests and stopped 124
others. 98.5% compliance.]
Continued:
Indeed, the record in this case makes clear that a decision holding these suspicionless seizures unconstitutional would not impede the law enforcement community's remarkable progress in reducing the death toll on our highways.2 Because [496 U.S. 444, 461] the Michigan program was patterned after an older program in Maryland, the trial judge gave special attention to that State's experience. Over a period of several years, Maryland operated 125 checkpoints; of the 41,000 motorists passing through those checkpoints, only 143 persons (0.3%) were arrested.3 The number of man-hours devoted to these [496 U.S. 444, 462] operations is not in the record, but it seems inconceivable that a higher arrest rate could not have been achieved by more conventional means.4 Yet, even if the 143 checkpoint arrests were assumed to involve a net increase in the number of drunken driving arrests per year, the figure would still be insignificant by comparison to the 71,000 such arrests made by Michigan State Police without checkpoints in 1984 alone. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 97a.
Any relationship between sobriety checkpoints and an actual reduction in highway fatalities is even less substantial than the minimal impact on arrest rates. As the Michigan Court of Appeals pointed out: "Maryland had conducted a study comparing traffic statistics between a county using checkpoints and a control county. The results of the study showed that alcohol-related accidents in the checkpoint county decreased by ten percent, whereas the control county saw an eleven percent decrease; and while fatal accidents in the control county fell from sixteen to three, fatal accidents in the checkpoint county actually doubled from the prior year." 170 Mich. App. 433, 443, 429 N. W. 2d 180, 184 (1988).
The FACTS are clear:
For those seeking efficient DUI enforcement the FACTS reveal sobriety checkpoints are NOT an efficient and/or effective means of enforcing DUI laws. As this article aptly points out, nearly 100% of Nevadan motorists are already complying with DUI laws.
Nevadans continue to be duped by the baseless banter of Metro which incorrectly implies our communities are safer from DUI motorists when sobriety checkpoints are implemented, contrary to the facts that clearly indicate the opposite to be true. Statistics and studies clearly reveal routine law enforcement patrols are more effective and efficient measures of thwarting impaired motorists than sobriety checkpoint tactics.
Those of Metro such as Sgt. Richard Strader authorizing law enforcement personnel resources and funding to conduct sobriety checkpoints are performing a disservice to the safety of OUR community's motorists through sobriety checkpoint tactics which MUST BE STOPPED.
Looks like Harley is missing the Marlboro man.
Sorry but the very idea of a fishing expedition aka a checkpoint is unconstitutional and therefore illegal.
Good research Harley. It's an invasive sham.
When I was driving a cab a couple yrs ago, I picked up a cop on his way to work at what used to be the SouthWest Div. Station and when he come out to go he was in a full-length bodycast on crutches...Come to find out on the way to work he was on "light duty" at the Station house because a few wks previously, while on patrol he had a D.U.I. suspect pulled over on the southwest side of town somewhere, and as he was at the drivers side of this persons vehicle another what turned out to be a D.U.I. driving by side-swiped him without seeing what was going on and landing him in the hospital for a couple wks,....He had also mentioned to me from the Law Enforcement perspective, that it was "Truly Amazing" at how many D.U.I.s' they deal with on a daily basis in this town, checkpoint or no checkpoint, so I guess what I'm getting at is look at it from someone elses point of view, and it kinda changes things, am I wrong?.....
As being a former police officer i have to admit i was never fond of these check points.Yes i have to admit that it does take a very few off the road,but these resorces can be used else where.As anyone knows in this town,traffic is the biggest woe we face,and when you see intersections blocked by 5/6 cars trying to turn left,or trying to beat the light only to get stopped half way and blocking the other direction,they gave up there right,and deserve to be stopped and ticketed! As for reading "the right or privilage" to drive,catch 22. My taxes pay for our roads there for it should be my right! As for setting an example,metro needs to show they have the same rules to follow as we do! I am in no way bashing our police force,but MONKEY SEE,MONKEY DO!!! And yes it is illegal.But the truth is this,its all in the way the report is written,and how the judge sees the law,and in the manner the law is written.