Palm Springs DUI Checkpoint
Police in Palm Springs conducted a marginally successful sobriety checkpoint Friday night in the 2900 block of North Indian Drive, yielding four arrests for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Out of the 841 vehicles screened by police that night, 21 citations for non-alcohol related charges such as invalid drivers licenses and impounded 16 vehicles. Palm Springs offices arrested one person with an outstanding felony warrant and one person on suspicion of methamphetamine possession. I say marginally successful because statistically, less than one-half of one percent of the cars screened by police that evening actually turned up an intoxicated or impaired driver.
Out of the 841 cars and drivers screened by police at the sobriety checkpoint, literally .48% were cited for driving under the influence. In what other industry, if any, would such a success rate be acceptable? If McDonald's got only .48% of their orders right, they would go out of business.
One of the freedoms that we enjoy here in the United States, Los Angeles in particular, is the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Law enforcement officials need to have a sound reason for entering your house, searching your car or searching you. They cannot do it simply because they think you look suspicious.
Sobriety checkpoints in Los Angeles are legally murky water because they allow police to search your vehicle even when you have not demonstrated behavior that might lead to an arrest for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
The United States Supreme Court ruled in the 1990s that sobriety checkpoints were allowable as long as the public was given advanced notice as to the time and location of the checkpoint, drivers were allowed to turn away from checkpoints before being screened, vehicles were screened according to a neutral formula (such as screening every sixth car, for example), and as long as cars that did turn away before being screened were not unfairly singled out because of their decision to leave. Ostensibly,
sobriety checkpoints are supposed to be to ensure public safety by taking potentially dangerous drivers off the road. But is driving with an expired driver's license a public safety hazard?
The sobriety checkpoint in Palm Springs turned up five times as many non-alcohol related citations as DUI arrests. Sobriety checkpointsactually cost taxpayers in Los Angeles in the form of time and money. This particular checkpoint was funded by both the California Office of Traffic Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Surely there is a better use of tax dollars than weeding four possibly impaired drivers out of 841.
If you have been charged with DUI stemming from a stop at a sobriety checkpoint, call the attorneys at Kestenbaum, Eisner & Gorin, LLP today to begin preparing your defense.