Los Angeles Holiday DUI Checkpoints

The 2010 holiday season has come and only just recently gone, but the battle against drinking and driving continues in Los Angeles.  In mid-December, local news publications such as L.A. Weekly published a schedule of sobriety or DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol) checkpoints that the Los Angeles Police Department was planning to conduct the weekend of December 17th.  The ten scheduled DUI checkpoints were positioned all around the Los Angeles area, most from the early evening until the earliest hours of the following morning that Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the aim of finding drivers in Los Angeles who had been drinking and driving.  No word has yet been given on the particular results of this holiday DUI sweep, but right now is a good time to go over some important information about DUI checkpoints.

An experienced Los Angeles DUI defense attorney can tell you that sobriety checkpoints are something of a sore spot when speaking of civil liberties.  Part of our nation's constitution protects citizens from being hassled or intimidated by local or federal law enforcement agents by prohibiting them from stopping or arresting us without a good reason.  When police make a DUI arrest, they typically must have observed a driver driving illegally or in a manner that would suggest they are under the influence of alcohol.  They can then legally pull you over to investigate whether or not you have, in fact, been drinking and driving.  A  Los Angeles DUI defense attorney knows that common red flags for a DUI stop include speeding, swerving in and out of your lane, running stop signs, or even improperly signaling.  DUI checkpoints, however, operate under different rules:  local law enforcement can set up roadblocks and theoretically pull over anyone in the roadblock to test for drinking and driving, even if they have not witnessed driving that is said to be typical of drivers driving under the influence of alcohol.  An experienced  Los Angeles DUI defense attorney, however, knows that even in these situations you have rights.  DUI checkpoints must be announced to the public, police operating the roadblock must use an impartial formula to decide which cars to pull over going through the roadblock (every sixth car, for example), and drivers who opt to turn out of the lane leading up to the roadblock may do so before they reach the front of the line without fear of the police coming after them.  If you have been arrested for DUI at a sobriety checkpoint, call the  Los Angeles DUI defense attorneys at Kestenbaum, Eisner & Gorin, LLP today.  If police arrested you improperly at a DUI checkpoint, your case may have grounds for dismissal before it ever goes to court.  Our  Los Angeles DUI defense attorneys have a combined 50 years in defending your freedom from improper or illegal police interference.  Call us today at 1-877-781-1570 to speak to an experienced  DUI defense attorney and begin preparing your defense.