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  1. #1
    Senior Member loservillelabor's Avatar
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    Number of traffic checkpoints on the rise

    http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006..._179_30_06.txt

    Number of traffic checkpoints on the rise

    By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer

    NORTH COUNTY ---- Carolyn Richardson wasn't happy after going through a driver's license checkpoint Wednesday morning in Escondido.

    She wasn't ticketed and her car wasn't impounded or stored, but the 54-year-old Rancho Bernardo woman said later in a telephone interview that she has questions and concerns about an increasing number of traffic checkpoints in North County.

    She also questioned why the checkpoints are being held, whether officers aren't being heavy-handed in enforcing laws, and whether they target the poor or Latinos.


    "I have to wonder what's motivating this," said Richardson, who is the pastor at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Poway. "I'm assuming this is legal, but who ordered this and why?"

    The checkpoints and other types of traffic operations have developed from the springboard of sobriety checkpoints, which started more than a decade ago. And officers often are looking for much more than just driver's licenses during the brief stops.

    Regardless of the official reason given for the checkpoint, officers usually look for any hint of whether the driver is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, as well as whether seat belts and child safety seats are being properly used in the vehicle.

    Driver's licenses, vehicle registration and insurance are also included on the checklist.

    Officers at North County law enforcement agencies said this week that the goal is to make the roadways safer and less expensive for everyone.

    "We've found that over 60 percent of our hit-and-run collisions in Oceanside are unlicensed drivers," said traffic Sgt. Kevin Kaiser of the city's Police Department. "That's why they don't stick around."

    It's the licensed, insured drivers who remain at the scene who are "paying for the damage to their car because the other driver fled," Kaiser said.

    However, criminal defense attorney Herb Weston of Vista said the increasing number of checkpoints is pushing the limits on the balance between public safety and individual privacy.

    "How many innocent people have to be pulled over?" Weston asked. "If I pull 20 people over and one of them doesn't have a license, does that make it OK?"

    Checkpoints are legal under U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the U.S. Constitution in cases that have so far been decided by the court.

    Right now, Weston said, probably less than 1 percent of the tickets handed out at checkpoints are successfully defended in local courts.

    "My slanted view is that constitutional protections have been taken away for the greater good," said Weston. "We've done that forever. My concern would be that they're using this to interfere with people's rights, and are they really affecting anything? Give me some statistics."

    Most of the North County officers contacted said their agencies either didn't have statistics about the effectiveness of checkpoints or they didn't have statistics readily available.

    Several noted that the primary effectiveness of checkpoints is that they deter people from violating the law.

    Lt. Alex Dominguez, traffic services coordinator for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, said that agency is working with a state Office of Traffic Safety grant that will help determine the effectiveness of sobriety checkpoints.

    "We have certain goals that we want to meet to reduce the number of people killed or injured in DUI (driving under the influence) collisions," Dominguez said.

    Traffic Sgt. Randy Webb, of the Encinitas Sheriff's Station, said his unit did a September street check to see how many people were wearing seat belts in vehicles.

    About 90 percent wore seat belts, Webb said, adding that he would try to provide specific details later about that survey.

    Legal guidelines for checkpoints include giving notice to the public, stopping cars on a formula, such as every fifth vehicle, and having an exit route for drivers who don't want to go through the checkpoint after the warning signs.

    Aside from the legalities, Richardson said she was concerned about Latino gardeners with their equipment who were waiting for a ride at the Escondido checkpoint. Their vehicle had been impounded or stored.

    "I just have to wonder if this isn't aimed at the Hispanic people," she said. "There's something going on, I think, where they're trying to make life difficult for people who are already poor."

    Officers, including Escondido police Lt. Tom Albergo, denied targeting or profiling people or neighborhoods.

    Albergo said the trucks of some landscaping crews and the workers of a countertop company were impounded at the Escondido checkpoint.

    "We allowed them to get licensed friends to come over and pick up their gardening equipment and tools," the Escondido lieutenant said. "We will not leave people stranded."

    Most people whose vehicles were impounded used their cell phones to get rides, a public phone was available, and officers would have loaned their phones out, if needed, Albergo said.

    Along those lines, officers also denied setting up checkpoints to catch particular suspects or criminals.

    "If we see something in plain sight, if we see a crime being committed (at checkpoints), obviously we're going to act on it," said Dominguez. "We don't set up checkpoints just to see if a criminal will come by just to pick him off."

    Weston, however, said he's concerned that officers are taking away driver's licenses and the ability to get insurance "from the people who most need to be insured."

    The fine for first offenses for failure to have a valid driver's license on hand is $400; not having any valid driver's license at all, $500; driving with a suspended license, $1,200, and driving under the influence, $1,800.

    Under court guidelines, a percentage of the fines generated by checkpoint tickets is returned to the city, county or state of each law enforcement agency that participates in a checkpoint.

    Officials couldn't say immediately, however, how that money is used.

    Kaiser said the $165 administrative fee to get an impounded vehicle released after an Oceanside checkpoint goes into a city account used for the traffic unit. It pays for some officer and staff positions, in addition to some equipment, he said.

    "Most of the tickets written at these things are for fix-it things (equipment violations)," Webb said. "There's no money made out of these, by any stretch of the imagination."

    Public complaints about the sobriety checkpoints, usually held at night, have dwindled over the years.

    The more recent daytime checkpoints for driver's licenses and seat belt use are drawing fire, particularly when people are delayed for work or school.

    Escondido police said the one they held from 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesday was deliberately scheduled, however, to avoid the morning work or school commutes.

    Checkpoints are often held when officers are available, occasionally with some overtime pay, and often through state Office of Traffic Safety grants that may require a certain number of checkpoints each year, officers said.

    Said Weston: "My opinion is that we're going to see more and more of those types of things until individual people recognize they are losing their rights."

    Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    Criminal defense attorney Herb Weston of Vista Your really a hummorist and not an attorney... ah, right.

    Dixie
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  3. #3
    Senior Member swatchick's Avatar
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    I like the checkpoints as that is the only easy legal way of catching illegals where they don't have a leg to stand on at a deportation hearing. It allows the officers to send people who they are suspicious of to a secondary area where they are questioned and checked out just as they do in a DUI checkpoint. This way they can nab illegals without all the constitutional rights concerns. Those supereme court cases by the illegals that set the policies occured mostly in the 70s.
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  4. #4
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    Hey All,

    Re:
    "How many innocent people have to be pulled over?" Weston asked. "If I pull 20 people over and one of them doesn't have a license, does that make it OK?"
    Maybe the more appropriate question is: why are people driving without licenses?

    Re:
    Right now, Weston said, probably less than 1 percent of the tickets handed out at checkpoints are successfully defended in local courts.
    Ooops, Mr. Weston. This is an 'inconvenient fact' for you, isn't it?
    I'm sure it helps pay his bills though...
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  5. #5
    Senior Member swatchick's Avatar
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    PhredE: It may be only 1% of people being caught without a license but what it doesn't tell you is what others get caught for. People don't know about that part. An example would be the City of Miami Beach had a DUI checkpoint going into South Beach that started at close to 10 o'clock. People thought that to be stupid as the drunks would be leaving the clubs in the wee hours of the morning. What it ended up doing is stopping some of the drug flow down there. They had numerous arrests and yes a few were DUI but the others were people driving with suspended driver's licenses, a person driving a stolen car, people with warrants out on them and several drug possession and dealing charges. One guy had a large ziplock bag almost completely full of marijuana and this guy kept wanting to go into his car. When the car was searched there was a 9mm Ruger which was reported stolen in another city. The highlight of the evening had to be the bail bonds guy who was a short whimpy looking guy. He was driving a old FBI car with the cage in the back. He was pulled over as it looked like he was impersonating a police officer. The guy had a warrant out for his arrest....it was his 6th driving without a license offense.
    In the end these checkpoints are in a way crime prevention as there are numerous arrests for various violations. The same goes for routine traffic stops. They aren't only there for the purpose of writing traffic tickets but for catching criminals. The police departments regular catch driver's without or suspended licenses, people with warrants out on them, people driving stolen cars, DUI, parole violations and more.
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  6. #6
    Senior Member greyparrot's Avatar
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    These pro-illegal slanted articles disgust me. This writer probably had to interview several check-point supporters before finding the sympathetic pastor he chose quote (the ONLY motorist quoted in the article), thus portraying her as "the voice of the community".

    The days of expecting fair and balanced journalism are long gone.

  7. #7
    Senior Member swatchick's Avatar
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    I read an interesting article about a course to teach Hispanics how to assimulate into American culture. It teaches them the way we act socially compared to how they did back home. This was interesting as the paper actually commented on how it is a necassity for them. I don't have a web site but it was in the Sun-Sentinel local section. I thought that was awesome. Then once again Broward County does not have as many of them as Miami Dade does and I think that they don't want the problems that Dade County has.
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