DUI Checkpoints or Traps for Unlicensed Drivers?
A new investigation is questioning the effectiveness of DUI Checkpoints and driver’s license tickets. The study by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley with California Watch found that DUI checkpoints are more likely to greet cars with unlicensed motorists than drunk drivers. These type of traffic tickets can be found under Division 6 of the California Vehicle Code (except violations for Occupational Licensing and Business Regulation found in Div.5). These traffic tickets can be a simple infraction or may result in a misdemeanor violation depending on the circumstances of the unlicensed driver.
According to this report, in 2009 officers impounded over 24,000 vehicles at checkpoints for licensing offenses. That total is roughly 7 times higher than the 3,200 drunk drivers arrested during roadway operations!
After analyzing city financial records, police reports, and results from every checkpoint that received state funding in 2008 and 2009, the report found that, among other things:
• The seizures appear to defy a 2005 federal appellate court ruling that determined police cannot impound cars solely because the driver is unlicensed. In fact, police across the state have ratcheted up vehicle seizures. Last year, officers impounded more than 24,000 cars and trucks at checkpoints. That total is roughly seven times higher than the 3,200 drunken driving arrests at roadway operations. The percentage of vehicle seizures has increased 53 percent compared to 2007.
• Departments frequently overstaff checkpoints with officers, all earning overtime. As an example, the Moreno Valley Police Department in Riverside County averaged 38 officers at each operation last year, six times more than federal guidelines say is required. Nearly 50 other local police and sheriff’s departments averaged 20 or more officers per checkpoint – operations that averaged three DUI arrests a night.
Funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety, police officers received about $30 million in overtime pay for the DUI crackdowns, accounting for more than 90 percent of the expense of sobriety checkpoints. Law enforcement agencies tend to use more officers than a checkpoint requires, according to guidelines established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Although the Federal Traffic Safety Agency advises that police departments set up checkpoints with as few as 6 officers, in California, police deployed 18 officers on average.
The report also reviewed demographic information and found that DUI Checkpoints repeatedly screen traffic within, or near, Hispanic neighborhoods. Cities where Hispanics represent a majority of the population are seizing cars at three times the rate of cities with small minority populations. In South Gate, a Los Angeles area city where Hispanics make up 92% of the population, police confiscated an average of 86 vehicles per operation last fiscal year. This information has many activists very alarmed to say the least.
For more information on this report please contact us, we are here to help. Of course, for assistance in fighting driver’s license tickets contact us today at BEAT MY TICKET, a service provided by TicketBust.com or call 800.850.8038.
