Misguided, but otherwise well-intentioned, law enforcement officials are
bracing for the trivial amount of
DUI arrests they will make at sobriety checkpoints around Ohio this weekend. Just
as Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer holiday travel, various police
departments will over-staff high-visibility checkpoints. This financial
ritual is funded by federal dollars. It begs the question — if sobriety
checkpoints are so effective, why do they seem to crop up only around
holiday weekends and with federal funding? Why not every weekend with
local dollars?
However, a few police departments are figuring out how to truly target
DUI — mobile DUI command stations known as BAT Mobiles – Breath Alcohol
Testing mobiles. Saturation patrols in a high drinking area (like Bethel
Road or the Arena District in Columbus) would do more, much more, to deter
intoxicated people from getting into their cars. If you walk out of the
bar in one of these entertainment areas and see cruiser after cruiser,
won’t you think twice about driving? Now, what if you walked out and
these officers were not present but were 5 miles away at a key intersection
manning a checkpoint?
What is more important — deterring DUI or catching DUI? Doesn’t a
saturation patrol do both whereas sobriety checkpoints barely do either?
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