Sobriety Checkpoints And Your Rights: What You Should Know About Protecting Yourself

Despite the legality of the practice, sobriety checkpoints can be a threat to your constitutional rights if improperly implemented and managed. As such, you should know how to properly protect yourself from wrongful detainment and possible arrest. Below is what you should know about sobriety checkpoints and what you can do to keep your rights intact:

Sobriety Checkpoints - A Legal Background

In 1990, the United States Supreme Court ruled that sobriety checkpoints are not an automatic violation of the Fourth Amendment, which stipulates that searches and seizures cannot be conducted without just cause. The California Supreme Court ruled likewise in 1987 that properly-implemented sobriety checkpoints are permissible, provided that they follow strict guidelines.

These two key decisions laid the groundwork for today's sobriety checkpoints and provide boundaries for law enforcement to follow when implementing checkpoints. Specifically, these boundaries include:

• Checkpoint times and locations must be announced ahead of time

• Drivers must be provided with an opportunity to avoid checkpoints if they so choose

• Drivers cannot be stopped at random; instead, there must be a pre-established methodology for making vehicle stops

• Checkpoint operations must be controlled administratively and not primarily by officers making the actual stops themselves

• Vehicle stops must be as brief as possible

How to protect your rights

With these principles in mind, here are some practical things you can do to protect yourself from a possible arrest and restore your rights should an unlawful arrest occur:

• Conduct research to determine when and where checkpoints will be set up - Since law enforcement agencies are not permitted to conduct stealth checkpoints, it is important for you to find out location and time information in advance. In some cases, information about checkpoints is publicized on police department websites or in the newspaper. In addition, you can also call the local or state agencies that enforce traffic laws in your area. By doing your research before going out, you can plan your driving routes to avoid possible trouble.

• Cooperate but do not volunteer - If you should happen to be stopped at a sobriety checkpoint, take care that you exercise both courtesy and good sense. Do not speak to officers rudely or provide them with any opportunity to escalate the event. Instead, speak softly and use slow, even vocal tones to keep emotions at an even keel.

However, at the same time, avoid volunteering information that could result in officers detaining you for reasonable suspicion. You are required to provide answers to questions about your personal identity, but you are not obligated to answer most other questions, including those relating to your departure point or destination and whether or not you have been drinking. Instead, politely decline to answer to questions such as these.

• Make mental notes if you are detained or arrested - Should you find yourself in a situation where detainment exists or arrest appears likely, begin to calmly make mental notes regarding your circumstances at the checkpoint. For example, attempt to discover what method is being used to stop drivers by asking an officer or by observing passing cars. In addition, it is useful to obtain supervisor names; this may help you trace the chain-of-command to the field officer who is detaining you. Knowing this information can help establish whether or not control of the checkpoint was at the administrative level as the law requires.

• Contact a lawyer who understands criminal law and constitutional rights - If you are arrested and charged with a crime as a result of a stop at a sobriety checkpoint, immediately locate an DWI lawyer who is knowledgeable about criminal defense law and how that relates to your rights. The complexities of defending yourself from charges demands you find the best possible expert to help, and that is why you should not attempt to hire anyone else.

• Don't drive while intoxicated - Of course, it should go without saying that avoiding drunk driving is the obvious and best way to prevent an arrest, but it is also the ideal way to protect both yourself and others from harm. If there is any doubt about your ability to drive, don't get in your car; call a cab or get a ride from sober friends.