Driver’s license checks reviewed

[Cruisingfool]

Link
Driver’s license checks reviewed
Escondido’s practice is illegal, ACLU says
By Angela Lau
The San Diego Union-Tribune, December 26, 2009

The city of Escondido is reviewing its policy on driver’s license checkpoints after the American Civil Liberties Union formally demanded that the city end the checkpoints, calling them violations of state law.

City Attorney Jeffrey Epp said this week that he is reviewing all the issues raised in a demand letter sent to the city by the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and El Grupo, a Latino advocacy group.

The letter states that driver’s license checkpoints violate state Vehicle Code section 14607.6, which prohibits officers from stopping motorists solely to check for licenses.

According to the letter, the state Attorney General’s Office has deemed it illegal to stop motorists to check licenses unless the police have a reasonable suspicion. Although the opinion concerned the city of Maywood in southeastern Los Angeles County and was part of a wide-ranging investigation into police wrongdoing there, ACLU legal Director David Blair-Loy said in an interview that the ruling should apply to Escondido as well.

“It is not a formal opinion, but it is certainly persuasive and relevant,” he said.

The attorney general’s spokeswoman, Christine Gasparac said the opinion applies only to Maywood and that the attorney general has not issued a formal opinion.

Epp said this week that the section of the vehicle code quoted by the ACLU is open to interpretation, but he is evaluating it nonetheless. In the meantime, police can continue driver’s license checkpoints, he said. The next one is scheduled for Jan. 2.

So far this year, the police have conducted 11 driver’s license checkpoints and 15 drunken-driving/driver’s license checkpoints, according to police records.

Blair-Loy said Escondido police have been downplaying the frequency of driver’s license checkpoints by masking some as DUI/driver’s license checkpoints. He said that sobriety checkpoints — which he supports — should not be used as driver’s license checkpoints.

Escondido police began driver’s license checkpoints in 2004 to reduce hit-and-run accidents, Police Chief Jim Maher has said, emphasizing that no one opposed them at the time.

In 2006, when the City Council adopted a fine for landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, El Grupo and others began calling driver’s license checkpoints deportation traps. That law was later rescinded when challenged in court.

The checkpoints, funded by a state grant, are held in high-traffic areas. All vehicles are stopped. Motorists who cannot produce proper identification are taken to the police station and checked for warrants and criminal history. If they have a criminal past and are thought to be in the country illegally, they are handed over to immigration authorities. So far, one person has been deported because of a standing court order, Maher has said.

The checkpoints were not ordered by the City Council, but Councilwoman Olga Diaz, who opposes them, wants the panel to consider ending them.

[usa today]

Whats to review ?

It is just illegal enablers carping so illegals won't get busted

This PC bs is sickening

They want a set of laws for us and a set of laws(or no laws) for illegals

[Commander Bunny]

Just call them sobriety check-points, They have them all the time in the SF/North bay area.

[Rim05]

Just call them sobriety check-points, They have them all the time in the SF/North bay area.

[B]There are/were some of those sobriety checks in So CA. I don't remember just which City but it could have been Maywood or the Inland Empire. They wanted the hours changed from going home from work time to something like 9 PM. If my memory is correct the change was made.B]

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Originally Posted by Rim05

[B]There are/were some of those sobriety checks in So CA. I don't remember just which City but it could have been Maywood or the Inland Empire. They wanted the hours changed from going home from work time to something like 9 PM. If my memory is correct the change was made.B]

This may be what you're referring to:
DUI arrests reach nearly 600
By STEVEN BARRIE
The Press-Enterprise
Two people died in alcohol- or drug-related collisions and more that 570 people were cited for driving under the influence in Riverside and San Bernardino counties during the Christmas holiday DUI-enforcement period.
Riverside County reported that as of Monday, 246 DUI arrests had been made in the reporting period from Dec. 18 to midnight Sunday.
No drunken-driving traffic deaths had been reported in the county, but some agencies had not sent in their numbers, said Karen Haverkamp, administrative supervisor of the Riverside Police Department's traffic bureau and coordinator of the countywide Avoid the 30 program.
"Avoid the 30" refers to the 30 law enforcement agencies operating in Riverside County and "Avoid the 25" refers to the same in San Bernardino County.
In San Bernardino County, 332 people were arrested for driving impaired and two DUI-related traffic deaths were reported during the same period, said the county's Avoid the 25 program in a news release.
One person died Dec. 19 in a crash in Phelan and another died Dec. 21 in a rollover near Barstow.
Both accidents are being investigated by the California Highway Patrol.
San Bernardino County's numbers are also provisional but for a different reason: they reflect only those people who were booked into a jail facility for DUI.
"I have no way of knowing how many were cite-released on the scene or at the hospital," said San Bernardino sheriff's Sgt. Dave Phelps, who coordinates the Avoid the 25 program.
Statewide DUI arrest and fatality numbers had not been compiled as of Monday.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/s...9.43942b9.html

[usa today]

DUI checkpoints have been vetted by the supreme court and found to be totally legal