Lawrence Taylor continues to pound away at the fraud of DUI “sobriety checkpoints,” which often turn into opportunities for cops to scour your car for potential fines and violations. Given that most states have seat belt, impaired driving, child restraint, break inspection sticker, safety inspection sticker, emissions inspection sticker, tax sticker, proof of insurance, license plate, driver’s license, and who knows what other requirements, restrictions, and decals that need to be kept current, it isn’t difficult to see how roadblocks designed to catch drunks can turn into lucrative revenue generators.

Taylor looks at one roadblock in North Carolina and finds the following:

Arrests resulting from the checkpoint included the following charges: Driving while intoxicated, three; alcoholic beverage control violations, three; driving while license revoked, four; no operator’s license, five; fail to carry license, three; seat belt violation, one; expired license plate, three; no insurance, one; unauthorized use of motor vehicle, one; misdemeanor possession of marijuana, one; possession with intent to sell/deliver marijuana (felony), one; felony maintain a vehicle, one; child restraint violation, six; inspection violation, three; careless and reckless driving, two; felony elude, two; fail to stop for lights and siren, one; outstanding warrants, three; commercial motor vehicle regulatory violation, two; resist, obstruct and delay, two.

If you’re counting, that’s 45 non-DWI related offenses. And three actual DWIs. Not sure what the BAC of thsoe DWIs was, but if it was under .10, you could make a good case that even those weren’t really justifiable when it comes to promoting public safety.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 16th, 2005 at 9:54 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Alcohol, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.