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Sobriety Checks: Police State Tactic or Reasonable?

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Tami Althoff, The Daily Oklahoman

Apr. 5--NORMAN -- There's been a lot of talk lately about the police department's decision to conduct sobriety checkpoints in Norman.

In case you haven't heard, these are random areas across the city, usually near popular watering holes, where police pull over your car and to make sure you haven't been drinking alcohol.

I have never been caught in one of these checkpoints (I don't drink much these days, so it really wouldn't matter), but people who have tell me the checkpoints can be quite a hassle.

Take for instance a former pizza deliveryman I know.

A few years back, Norman's finest set up camp on Lindsey Street, just down the road from his place of employment. Every time he left to deliver a pizza, he was forced to stop.

"It got pretty annoying," the former deliveryman said. "You would think they would have recognized my car by the sixteenth time."

You'd think.

Most drivers aren't inconvenienced to the extent of the pizza deliveryman, but they do admit it's a hassle.

The question is, are the checkpoints worth it?

David from Norman believes so.

"I think checkpoints are a good idea for sobriety AND insurance coverage. If you have nothing to hide, it should not be a problem," David said at MyNewsOK. "Everyone is in such a hootin' hurry these days, they need to be slowed a little now and then. Some folks will cry 'Police State,' but if you are driving on public roads, I say you have given permission to be checked."

David has a good point.

Norman police say half the traffic fatalities in Norman involve alcohol, which is the leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-olds. When sobriety checkpoints were used in the past, police say they served as deterrent, which is exactly the department's mission here. (See reporter Jane Cannon's Q&A with Norman Police Chief Phil Cotten in Tuesday's edition of MyNorman).

Mike, another MyNewsOK contributor from Norman, says this is "search without cause."

"If someone is driving erratically, fine, pull them over. But setting up roadblocks seems like a little too much like 'police state' tactics to me," Mike said. "Not to mention the inconvenience to ordinary drivers who are not drunk, but must, nevertheless, submit to the wasted time and indignity of being 'checked' for criminal drunkeness."

Mike goes on to suggest that public drinking go the way of the cigarette. "Maybe we should just ban public drinking like we did smoking," he says. Not a bad idea. If people were forced to drink in the privacy of their own homes, many a mother would get to sleep at night instead of worrying about where her teenager is and what they are doing. And, the pizza would be delivered on time.

The fact of the matter is, checkpoints are here for the time being. As a measure of politeness, police have said they will publicly announce checkpoints 24 hours in advance, although the time and place of the checkpoints will be kept secret.

Have you been stopped at a sobriety checkpoint? If so, what happened? If you have an opinion about this issue or others, e-mail me at talthoff-@oklahoman.com or visit www.newsok.com/communities.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Daily Oklahoman

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Source: The Daily Oklahoman

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