Photo via KCRW’s Shortcuts blog
It was the kind of LBPD press release that seems a bit spin-heavy. “LONG BEACH POLICE DUI CHECKPOINT PROVES EFFECTIVE,” said the headline. Jump down a few lines and you find that the eight-hour operation, which was staffed by over a dozen officers (a factoid not included in the release, but I saw this for myself), netted a total of four DUI arrests. Not that the LBPD can control how many drunk drivers came through, of course. But you have to wonder what they wouldn’t have considered “effective.”
Nonetheless, it is widely (though certainly not universally) believed that DUI checkpoints—or sobriety checkpoints, as they are more properly called—are indeed effective, not so much for the arrests they generate, but for reducing the number of drunk drivers on the road during duration of a given checkpoint.
Naturally, that effectiveness is contingent upon a checkpoint’s being publicized in advance, the idea being that some would-be drunk drivers will think twice about getting behind the wheel when they know that somewhere nearby a “trap” awaits them.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which funds such checkpoints, urges police departments to reach out to media in advance of operating each checkpoint. And to be sure, the LBPD sends us these press releases. Sometimes we publicize them. But perhaps not frequently and prominently enough.
While we media types may be too apathetic about publicizing sobriety checkpoints, there is an entire little industry full of vim and vigor to get the word out. Unfortunately, the practitioners to whom I refer provide the checkpoints’ exact locations—information counterproductive to deterring impaired drivers, since it fosters in them a belief that, so long as they don’t drunkenly drive here, they will be fine. It’s a sick but predictable irony that most of the services providing specific locations are tied in some way to attorneys who specialize in DUI defense.
When the service itself is unable to provide the exact location, there is often no shortage of clueless patrons to fill in the blanks. “Why give the drunks a heads up?” posted on visitor to such a website earlier this month, asking the obvious question. “Cuz drunks make the world go round,” answered some idiot. That same day a Long Beach checkpoint was listed, though without cross streets. “Undisclosed location?? Then what good is it liking this profile if we don’t know where they’ll be??” Within a half-hour some fool provided the missing info.
For reasons passing understanding (mine, at least), sometimes certain police departments reveal exactly where a checkpoint will be. Neither the federal Supreme Court case upholding the constitutionality of sobriety checkpoints nor the California Supreme Court case upholding them here requires this, and the LBPD doesn’t do it. They shouldn’t, because the element of the unknown is a key part of the deterrent effect.
According to the Office of Traffic Safety, “California far and away leads the nation in the number of sobriety checkpoints conducted annually.” It may be more than coincidence that in recent years California’s alcohol-impaired driving fatality rate “is much better than the national average,” despite the fact that we have the most cars on the road and the nation’s highest total number of traffic fatalities per year.
But over a quarter of those fatalities are alcohol-related. Which means there’s a hell of lot of room for improvement. So if you hear about a sobriety checkpoint in a general area, let everybody know; and if you know the exact location, keep it to yourself. Such a post would look something like this:
The LBPD will be conducting a sobriety checkpoint somewhere in the North Division area on Saturday, March 2, between 7PM and 3AM.
That’s a true story, not just an example. So if you’re at all impaired Saturday—from drinking, smoking, prescription drugs, cough syrup, whatever—don’t drive, because the cops will be out there somewhere.
Not that you should need such a deterrent. Being impaired is more than enough reason to stay out from behind the wheel, don’t ya think?