Irvine DUI checkpoint –

Our Orange County DUI Lawyers found a press release by the Irvine Police Department regarding their a DUI/sobriety checkpoint during the evening hours on Saturday December 19, 2009. The checkpoint was located at Irvine Center Drive and Hubble in the City of Irvine. As part of the California Holiday DUI Crackdown Campaign, the purpose of the checkpoint was to deter impaired driving and hold accountable those driving under the influence.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) helped sponsor and provide support to these checkpoints. According to MADD, in one survey, 79% of the public approved of sobriety checkpoints.

Funding for the special enforcement campaign, December 16, 2009 through January 3, 2010 came from a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

This checkpoint was staffed by sworn officers and professional staff from the Irvine Police Department, and by MADD volunteers.

Look at these numbers:

Vehicles Stopped      Sobriety Tests      DUI Arrests      Citations Issued      Vehicles Towed

347                                          4                     ZERO (0)                     14                                               5

347 vehicles and drivers (not to mention other passengers) inconvenienced, traffic delayed, for zero arrests?  For 14 traffic tickets to be issued?  As I’ve said so many times, DUI checkpoints are a waste of time, and aren’t even as effective as the more useful saturation patrols.  But still, based upon MADD pressure and federal money, they persist.

I often get the argument, “but Robert, if even one drunk driver is taken off the road…”, an argument that has its own logical fallacy, but in this case, as with many others, what if not even one drunk driver is taken off the road?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 1:41 pm and is filed under DUI News, Dui Checkpoints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.