Sobriety checkpoints tend to surface in the news repeatedly over time, given their propensity to elicit strong reactions in people with widely differing views. Proponents -- which obviously include police departments and, often, municipal officials -- assert quite flatly that DUI checkpoints are effective from both an economic and resource-utilization standpoint, and that they make roads safer by removing drunk drivers and spotting other illegal activities. Critics offer up a number of objections, including charges that the checkpoints are illegal searches and that they are often merely pretexts to issue citations that bring in money for cash-strapped towns and cities.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court deemed sobriety checkpoints constitutional in 1980, not all states allow them.
Georgia does, with DUI units operating out of regional networks throughout the state. A spokesman for one representative unit, from Carroll County, says that the checkpoints set up at various locations throughout the county catch dangerous drivers "and send a proactive message" to others who are thinking about drinking and driving.
Moreover, he notes, they are an especially compelling law enforcement option when gas prices are prohibitively expensive.
David Jenks, a criminology professor from the University of West Georgia, says that effectiveness shouldn't be narrowly gauged by looking only at the costs to police departments. He cites statistics showing that DUI checkpoints reduce drunk driving accidents and DUI-related fatalities by up to 20 percent, and they eliminate many medical bills and crash-related costs that would otherwise arise.
Others are less sanguine about checkpoints, and a common objection centers on their blanket approach. "A DUI checkpoint approach dispenses with probable cause," says Robert Poole, the Reason Foundation's director of transportation policy. Poole says the tool should be outlawed under the Fourth Amendment, since it allows officers to stop drivers without any evidence at all that they are impaired or have committed any crime.
Related Resource: Times-Georgian, "Law enforcement agencies say DUI checkpoints are effective" April 2, 2011
