Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Newport Beach is a city that prides itself on being tough on DUI cases.  Receiving a DUI in Newport Beach means having to deal with both the Orange County Superior Court system, (through the Orange County Harbor Justice Center), AND the DMV regarding your license is an entirely different issue. Another major obstacle to overcome is to find a competent lawyer/attorney in Newport Beach who will not only fight for your rights as a citizen but who will also listen to your needs and game plan your strategies effectively and concisely.
Here are the steps to Take when looking for a Newport Beach DUI Attorney or Lawyer.

More than likely your arrest was made by one of three police divisions; Newport Beach Police Department, Orange County Sheriff’s Department or the California Highway Patrol. If a friend a family member was arrested you’ll need to contact them IMMEDIATELY.

Below is important information you’ll need.

Newport Beach Police Department
870 Santa Barbara Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92660
(949) 644-3681

Orange County Sheriff’s Department
550 N. Flower Street,
Santa Ana, CA 92703

HARBOR JUSTICE CENTER

Orange County Superior Court

4601 Jamboree Road

Newport Beach, CA 92660

Contact the DMV Within 10 Days of your DUI Arrest

One of the most important aspects of a DUI arrest in Newport Beach as well as the rest of California is that a person suspected of driving under the influence has 10 Calendar days to contact the DMV with an attorney in order to schedule a hearing and to stop any possible suspension of driving privileges in the state of California. Whether or not someone has a California license is irrelevant, the DMV Admin Per Se hearing is critical in a DUI case mainly for the fact that it gives the attorney handling your DUI the opportunity to cross examine any officers or witnesses involved in the arrest and possibly a forensic toxicologist to testify regarding your blood alcohol level.

Let an experienced DUI Lawyer Handle the Work

It is not recommended for someone to schedule a hearing themselves. For reasons illustrated above, it may be difficult to schedule a hearing, especially if there are witnesses who will be subpoenaed. The attorney involved in defending your DUI will handle the administrative processes for you, giving you peace of mind and allowing the experts to handle the majority of your case. Be sure to have your attorney request a hearing via fax (facsimile) AND through certified mail to insure DMV receives the hearing request.

What you need to know
Because of the fact that an arrest was made in Newport Beach for a DUI, the DMV Admin Per Se Hearing will be held at the Irvine Driver Safety office of the DMV.

The Irvine Driver Safety office is located at

16735 Von Karman, #110,

Irvine, CA 92606-4953.

Because an arrest was made in Newport Beach for a DUI, court appearances are usually heald at the Harbor Justice Center. The Harbor Justice Center is located at 4601 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach, CA 92660-2595.

Our law firm has an excellent reputation as top Newport Beach DUI Attorneys.  Our law firm’s Newport Beach office is located at:

Miller & Associates

5020 Campus Drive

Newport Beach, CA 92660.

Contact us anytime at (949) 682-5316

Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

The Costa Mesa Police Department will conduct a sobriety and driver’s license checkpoint on Monday, Marc 1 st , from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., on Harbor Boulevard at Fair Drive.  Officers will  screen  drivers  passing  through  the  checkpoint  for  sobriety  and  for  a  valid  driver’s  license.  Drivers found to be under the influence of alcohol or other drugs will be arrested, and unlicensed
drivers may be cited and have their cars towed.

DUI Checkpoints are not an effective way to accomplish the goal of public safety, but they are a cash cow for cops and the city, which needs the funding.  The City makes most of their money from impounding vehicles, which gets paid even if the person is later found innocent, and the Federal Government chips in substantial funding for DUI Checkpoints.  MADD also provides funding and volunteers.

As one of a few experienced Orange County DUI Lawyers practicing in this area, I’ve seen hundreds of DUI Checkpoints.  Contact me if you need the advice of our Newport Beach DUI Lawyers.

Related articles

• DUI Checkpoints Are Cash Cow For Cops, Cities (themoderatevoice.com)
• Cypress: DUI Checkpoint On Saturday (cehwiedel.com)
• Seal Beach: Results of DUI Checkpoint (cehwiedel.com)

Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

DUI / Drivers License Checkpoint Scheduled

The Escondido Police Department will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License checkpoint on Friday, February 26, 2010, from 6:00 PM to 1:00 AM, in the City of Escondido.  In an effort to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes, DUI checkpoints are conducted to identify offenders and get them off the street, as well as educate the public on the dangers of impaired driving.

All too often, members of our community are senselessly injured or killed on local roadways by impaired drivers. This DUI/Drivers License checkpoint is an effort to reduce those tragedies, as well as insuring drivers have a valid driver’s license.  A major component of these checkpoints is to increase awareness of the dangers of impaired driving and to encourage sober designated drivers.

A DUI checkpoint is not a proven effective method for achieving this goal, but by publicizing these enforcement and education efforts, The Escondido Police Department believes motorists can be deterred from drinking and driving.

Traffic volume and weather permitting, all vehicles may be checked and drivers who are under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs will be arrested. Our objective is to send a clear message to those who are considering driving a motor vehicle after consuming alcohol and/or drugs – Drunk Driving, Over the Limit, Under Arrest. The public is encouraged to help keep roadways safe by calling 911 if they see a suspected impaired driver.

Funding for this operation is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Related articles

• Cypress: DUI Checkpoint On Saturday (cehwiedel.com)
• DUI Checkpoints Are Cash Cow For Cops, Cities (themoderatevoice.com)
• CA Sobriety Checkpoints Are Becoming More About Profit Than Drunk Driving (dvorak.org)

Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

An Orange County DUI checkpoint looking for drunk drivers in Costa Mesa resulted in three arrests this weekend, police said.

The Costa Mesa Police Department set up a checkpoint Friday at the intersection of Baker and Bear streets, according to a department press release.

The checkpoint screened 318 vehicles. Three people were arrested on suspicion of DUI, nine citations were issued and six vehicles were impounded.

“This checkpoint was one of many that have been or will be conducted throughout the year in the city of Costa Mesa,” Sgt. David Makiyama, a police spokesman, said in a statement. “The goal of the DUI checkpoint was removing impaired drivers and to bring awareness to the public of the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.”

As mentioned, DUI Sobriety Checkpoints are becoming more about the money than public safety.  I’ve seen this happen with Los Angeles DUI and Orange County DUI cases, and I can say that with some certainty as one of the top Orange County DUI Lawyers in the area.

Related articles

• Cypress: DUI Checkpoint On Saturday (cehwiedel.com)
• Seal Beach: Results of DUI Checkpoint (cehwiedel.com)
• LAPD Ups DUI Patrols and Checkpoints for Super Bowl Sunday (laist.com)
• Car Seizures At DUI Checkpoints Raise Money, Legal Questions (huffingtonpost.com)

Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

There are other blogs that I love and appreciate, and this posting is to bring to your attention the ones that are DUI, law, and politics related.  As someone that handles Los Angeles DUI, Orange County DUI, and Long Beach DUI cases, I deal with the effects of bad laws, and the efforts of those in politics to erode our Constitution.  These blogs help that fight, even if a little bit.  I appreciate all of you!

First, the Leave Us Alone blog, which has a Libertarian bent, but which also has some thought provoking commentary on the efforts of Government to intrude on our lives in every way possible.

http://leave-us-alone.blogspot.com/

The CrimLaw blog is a highly ranked, well written blog with a wealth of information about Criminal Law:

http://crimlaw.blogspot.com/

The Common Scold (love that name) is a humorous overview of the real world of practicing law and of operating a law firm.  It’s got great design and all the posts are well written:

http://commonscold.typepad.com/commonscold/

Talk Left is a blog that is not afraid to point out the sometimes shocking links between Politics and Crime:

http://www.talkleft.com/

Windy Pundit is a blog from (where else?), Chicago, the Windy City, about criminal defense and politics:

http://www.windypundit.com/

Idaho Criminal Defense Law is an absolutely beautifully designed blog about criminal defense:

http://www.idahocriminaldefenselaw.com/

Washington DUI Trial Law is by an attorney I know personally, Francisco Duarte (we are in a national organization together) and is well written and insightful with regards to DUI defense specifically:

http://www.washingtonduitriallaw.com/

Crime and Federalism is a blog that has a minimalist design, but tons of great content regarding the links between politics and criminal prosecution policies:

http://www.crimeandfederalism.com/

The Noble Lie is a blog that, sadly, just went on hiatus, but the archives are worth going through:

http://noblelie.com/

The Minnesota Criminal Defense Blog is a blog devoted to Criminal Defense in Minnesota, with an excellent design, and tons of great postings written on the site:

http://www.mncriminaldefenseblog.com/

Hopefully you’ll check these blogs out.  Thanks for looking!

Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

The following is a press release sent to our Orange County DUI Lawyers regarding Orange County DUI Checkpoint Locations in Costa Mesa for February, 2010.

Release Date: February 17, 2010
PIO: Lieutenant Bryan Glass
714.754.5603
Sergeant Phil Myers
714.754.5074

Synopsis:

Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes.  In California last year 1,029 people died in crashes
involving a driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher.  That is
why the Costa Mesa Police Department announced today they will be holding a DUI/Driver’s License
checkpoint on Friday, February 19 th , from 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., on Baker Street at Bear Street.

“Make no mistake. Our message is simple. No matter what you drive—a passenger car, pickup, sport
utility vehicle or motorcycle—if we catch you driving impaired, we will arrest you. No exceptions. No
excuses,” said Sergeant Makiyama.  “We will be talking to drivers, making sure they are not impaired,
arresting those who are, and getting the word out that impaired driving and driving without a proper
license is not acceptable in Costa Mesa.

The Costa Mesa Police Department advises that by following these easy steps, a driver can enjoy a safe
and festive evening without jeopardizing their life and the lives of the others who may be on the road.

   Plan a safe way home before the festivities begin;
   Before drinking, designate a sober driver and give that person your keys;
   If you’re impaired, use a taxi, call a sober friend or family member, or use public
transportation so you are sure to get home safely;
   If you happen to see a drunk driver on the road, don’t hesitate to call 911.

Driving impaired is simply not worth the risk. The consequences are serious and real. Not only do you risk
killing yourself or someone else, but the trauma and financial costs of a crash or an arrest for driving while
impaired can be significant. Violators face jail time, the loss of their driver’s license, higher insurance
rates, and dozens of other unanticipated expenses.

Funding for this checkpoint comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National
Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

Supervisor Writing / Approving Release: David Makiyama, Sergeant

Related articles

• Cypress: DUI Checkpoint On Saturday (cehwiedel.com)
• Seal Beach: Results of DUI Checkpoint (cehwiedel.com)
• New State Laws Aim to Keep DUI Offenders Dry in the Driver’s Seat (laist.com)
• Cops Post Mug Shots of DUI Suspects (abcnews.go.com)

Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

City Of Cypress Police Department

Cypress Police Department Targets Impaired Drivers with Checkpoint

The Cypress Police Department will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License checkpoint on Saturday, February 20, 2010, from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., on Valley View at Phyllis Drive. In an effort to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes, DUI checkpoints are conducted to identify offenders and get them off the street, as well as educate the public on the dangers of impaired driving.

All too often, members of our community are senselessly injured or killed on local roadways by impaired drivers. This DUI/Drivers License checkpoint is an effort to reduce those tragedies, as well as ensuring drivers have a valid driver’s license. A major component of these checkpoints is to increase awareness of the dangers of impaired driving and to encourage sober designated drivers.

A DUI checkpoint is a proven effective method for achieving this goal. By publicizing these enforcement and education efforts, the Cypress Police Department believes motorists can be deterred from drinking and driving.

Traffic volume and weather permitting, all vehicles may be checked and drivers who are under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs will be arrested. Our objective is to send a clear message to those who are considering driving a motor vehicle after consuming alcohol and/or drugs – Drunk Driving, Over the Limit, Under Arrest.

The public is encouraged to help keep roadways safe by calling 911 if they see a suspected impaired driver.

Funding for this operation is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Related articles:

• Cypress: DUI Checkpoint On Saturday (cehwiedel.com)
• Seal Beach: Results of DUI Checkpoint (cehwiedel.com)
• Police: Twitter used to avoid DUI checkpoints (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• CA Sobriety Checkpoints Are Becoming More About Profit Than Drunk Driving (dvorak.org)
• Car Seizures At DUI Checkpoints Raise Money, Legal Questions (huffingtonpost.com)

Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

The Long Beach Police Department will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint on Saturday, February 20, 2010, from 6:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. The checkpoint location will be northbound Atlantic Avenue at Harding Street.  As mentioned by a recent study from the University of California Berkeley, DUI checkpoints are major money for the police, even though they don’t have either a deterrent effect on DUIs or result in many DUI arrests.

Traffic volume and weather permitting, all vehicles may be checked and drivers who are under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs will be arrested.

Funding for this operation is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with volunteers provided by MADD.  For further information contact Sergeant Tom Marcoux in the Traffic Section at  (562) 570-7295.  And, if you are looking for the best Long Beach DUI Lawyers, contact our firm at (877) 568-2977, as we are always happy to help.

Related articles:

• Cypress: DUI Checkpoint On Saturday (cehwiedel.com)
• Seal Beach: Results of DUI Checkpoint (cehwiedel.com)
• CA Sobriety Checkpoints Snare Illegals, Pad Tow Companies? (thecarconnection.com)
• Car Seizures At DUI Checkpoints Raise Money, Legal Questions (huffingtonpost.com)

Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

California Watch, one of the few remaining bastions of investigative reporting, had a description about their week’s workflow, and what happens when there’s a busy story, like their s DUI checkpoint story about profits for police.

The important story last week regarding Los Angeles DUI checkpoints, Orange County DUI checkpoints, and Long Beach DUI Checkpoints, was an important one.  The following is their day-by-day breakdown of how their collaboration with the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, KQED Radio and other news outlets came together last week:

Monday: We started contacting news partners about the checkpoint story, first giving them a several paragraph “budget line.” It pretty closely mirrored the top of the story as written:

California police departments are increasingly turning sobriety checkpoints into profitable operations that are far more likely to seize cars from unlicensed minority motorists than catch drunken drivers on the state’s roadways.

Many of the drivers losing their cars at checkpoints are illegal immigrants, an examination by the University of California, Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program in collaboration with California Watch has found.

These unlicensed motorists rarely challenge the impounds, or have the cash to recover their cars.

Impounds at checkpoints in 2009 generated tens of millions of dollars in towing fees and police fines. Additionally, police officers collected checks for about more than $25 million in overtime pay for the DUI crackdowns, funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety.

In the course of its examination, The Investigative Reporting Program reviewed hundreds of pages of city financial records and police reports, and analyzed data documenting the results from checkpoints the past two years. Other findings include:

• Sobriety checkpoints frequently screen traffic within, or near, Hispanic neighborhoods.

• The seizures appear to defy a 2005 federal appellate court ruling that determined police cannot impound cars solely because the driver is unlicensed.

• Departments frequently overstaff checkpoints with officers, all earning overtime pay.

Every day in newsrooms across the country, editors and reporters try to capture the interest of their bosses with tantalizing budget lines. Our situation is unique. We pitch our work to multiple outlets at the same time. Will they want our story? And if so, how will they play it?

Robert Rosenthal, the executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, and Louis Freedberg, the California Watch director who oversees our distribution efforts, began drumming up interest. They sent the budget line to numerous news organizations and followed up with e-mails and phone calls.

In the meantime, our copy editor William Cooley was looking over the story. Copy editors are a rare breed. The best ones are pains in the behind. And they consider it the highest possible compliment to be labeled as such. That’s what I love about Cooley. He is a talented intern from San Jose State. But he carries himself like a veteran.

He has not shied away from asking major prize-winning veteran reporters and editors to explain their methods or their premise. He asks uncomfortable but important questions. And he’s made some outstanding catches that have saved us from potentially embarrassing moments.

Tuesday: The reporter on the project, Ryan Gabrielson, sat down to go over Cooley’s comments and final questions from Rosenthal and me. Gabrielson is a fellow at the UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program. He won both the Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award in 2009.

Last summer, he was offered a fellowship at UC Berkeley under the direction of the legendary Lowell Bergman. Soon after arriving in California, he began working on the checkpoint story. Bergman and Gabrielson started talking to us about it late last year and a first draft was submitted in January. I started editing it during our “Open Newsroom” on January 21.

We went back and forth on several drafts and were feeling really good about it. But there was work to do. Cooley had thought we needed more attribution and additional context. Gabrielson and I agreed. I also asked to have his methodology reviewed, so Gabrielson sent it to Steve Doig, a Pulitzer-winning journalism professor at Arizona State University and former board member at Investigative Reporters and Editors.

In the meantime, Data analyst Agustin Armendariz and multimedia producer Lisa Pickoff-White polished a snazzy interactive map of all the cities that got federal funding for checkpoints in 2008 and 2009. They built the map with data Gabrielson had gathered during his reporting.

Wednesday: Time to cut the story. The full-length version of Gabrielson’s draft was about 4,500 words – well over 150 inches. No daily newspaper in California would likely print a story of that length. We trimmed it to about 3,800 words – an appropriate length for the California Watch Web site.

Once that was done, the hard work began. I cut the story again – this time by more than half – to about 1,800 words. At that length it could fit in the news pages of our newspaper partners.

I showed it to Gabrielson, and he didn’t have a heart attack. A good sign. Rosenthal and Freedberg continued to work the phones to find media partners and to keep editors informed about our progress.

Based on our budget line, the Sacramento Bee seemed interested. So did the Orange County Register. The Bakersfield Californian and Stockton Record soon came on board. In addition to showing our methodology to an expert in computer-assisted reporting and statistical analysis, such as Doig, Rosenthal thought we needed to write about our methodology so that readers could understand how the reporting process evolved. Gabrielson banged that out.

He also wrote the text for two data pieces that Armendariz helped put together – one focusing on overtime costs and another looking at the UC Berkeley program that helps administer DUI checkpoint money.

Working with Gabrielson was a pleasure. It’s comforting to an editor when a reporter can quickly answer every question you toss their way. Gabrielson had great command of the subject, and he worked quickly and efficiently to turn around all of our requests. By midday, we were ready to distribute both versions of the story.

Even though we didn’t expect any newsroom to publish the full-length story, we made it available in case editors saw things in the longer draft that they wanted in the condensed version. Once the drafts are dispatched to news outlets, we await questions from editors. Because we’re almost always dealing with multiple partners, we end up fielding lots of inquiries from copy editors, project editors and managing editors as the week progresses.

When we launched California Watch last fall, I worried that it might be a little overwhelming to have so many layers of editors. We all know what it’s like to have too many cooks trying to season the soup. So far, knock on wood, it has actually worked. And we saw a perfect example of that just a few hours later. Sacramento Bee Projects Editor Amy Pyle suggested tweaking the first paragraph of our story. It made the top better and tighter. We made a couple of other adjustments and added a new fourth paragraph.

This was the new start (You can see how it differs slightly from the budget line):
Sobriety checkpoints in California are increasingly turning into profitable operations for local police departments that are far more likely to seize cars from unlicensed motorists than catch drunken drivers.

And this was the added fourth paragraph:
In dozens of interviews over the past three months, law enforcement officials and tow truck operators say that vehicles are predominantly taken from minority motorists – often illegal immigrants.

Doig, the Arizona State professor, got back to us and said he was comfortable with our methods. In the meantime, Gabrielson was going through an entirely different editing process with the New York Times. Bergman, who had won a Pulitzer Prize working with the Times, had gotten the newspaper’s new Bay Area edition and PBS NewsHour interested months ago.

Gabrielson tailored a tightly focused draft for the Times that contained mostly information about Bay Area checkpoints. And he was going back and forth with editors there about changes to the story. He also prepped for a KQED Radio interview with Michael Montgomery and reviewed final video.

Thursday: La Opinion had begun to translate the story into Spanish. Web production assistant Sarah McHie made sure all our articles and pieces were coming together for our Web site. Pickoff-White produced a cool graphic showing the cities with the highest impound rates. She did this even though she had been laid up in a hospital for two days over the weekend. Now she had been ordered by her doctors to rest at home because she had what appeared to be swine flu. But a little H1N1 wasn’t going to stop her.

Gabrielson, meanwhile, headed over to KQED Radio in the morning to tape his radio interview. Later, he watched the NewsHour piece one last time before it got shipped to New York. He also went over the story line-by-line with the New York Times to make more changes to their draft.

Friday: We prepared a Word document with final fixes – just two revised paragraphs that added context in response to a question from Orange County Register Investigative Editor Chris Knap and another from the Sacramento Bee. Through this editing process, the story kept getting stronger.

Some news organizations were still weighing whether to run it. The Modesto Bee told us they would publish the story the following week. The Fresno Bee said they also would like to run it later. Freedberg got back the translated version from La Opinion.

One more time, we all looked over the final pieces that McHie had loaded into our content management system. We rewrote one headline on a graphic, but otherwise everything looked ready. Just as we were leaving the office, we received word that three more Southern California newspapers were interested.

Saturday: Logging in from home, Pickoff-White made sure everything went live at the right time. We posted the stories, charts, graphics and interactive map around 6 p.m.

Our California Watch News Alert went out shortly after, and we started sending out our “tweets” announcing the story. We also posted a link on Facebook. As a small startup, these social media tools are especially important to help spread the word about our work.

The New York Times posted their version early Saturday evening. In the meantime, around the state, several newspaper staffs were getting ready to put the story on their front pages for Sunday. KQED Radio would broadcast an interview with Gabrielson on Monday and the PBS NewsHour would devote a segment to the story Monday night.

Sunday: Finally, an opportunity to exhale – but not all of us. Sarah Terry-Cobo, a freelance journalist who also helps with distribution, scoured the Web for newspaper front pages for our own archives. We also kept pushing the story on Twitter and Facebook. Huffington Post picked up the story, driving thousands of new readers to our site. By the time the day was over, we had shattered our record for the most traffic on californiawatch.org in a single day.

Related articles:

• CA Sobriety Checkpoints Are Becoming More About Profit Than Drunk Driving (dvorak.org)
• CA Sobriety Checkpoints Snare Illegals, Pad Tow Companies? (thecarconnection.com)
• Study Examines Statewide DUI Checkpoints, Including LAPD’s (laist.com)
• Car Seizures At DUI Checkpoints Raise Money, Legal Questions (huffingtonpost.com)

Archive for February, 2010

Newport Beach DUI Lawyers

Friday, February 26th, 2010

The following article is actually from the Orange County Register, and it’s good, taking the lid off the financial incentives behind all the Orange County DUI checkpoint locations.  It’s the same situation with Los Angeles DUI cases as it is with Orange County DUI cases, and as a DUI Specialist Orange County, I see it before anyone else.

It may not come as a surprise that the big burg of Santa Ana arrests more drunks – and impounds more cars - than any other OC police agency mounting state-funded drunk-driving checkpoints.

But look at the number of vehicles impounded for every arrest made at drunk traps, and you’re in for a surprise: The little city of Placentia suddenly rockets to the top of the list.

• For every one drunk driving arrest the Placentia Police Department makes, it impounds 35 vehicles .
• For every one drunk driving arrest that the Santa Ana Police Department makes, it impounds 4.5 vehicles.
• For every one drunk driving arrest that the Huntington Beach Police Department makes, it impounds only one vehicle.

Click below for charts and graphs detailing OC police agencies, how many drunk traps they mount, how many arrests they make, and how many vehicles they impound.

The data was collected by our colleagues at the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley with California Watch. The cities reviewed used state and federal funding to pay for checkpoints. The investigation found that sobriety checkpoints in California are profitable operations for local police departments, which are far more likely to seize cars from unlicensed motorists than catch drunken drivers.

In 2009, impounds at checkpoints generated some $40 million in towing fees and police fines (revenue that cities divide with towing firms); and police officers received about $30 million in overtime pay for the DUI crackdowns, the investigation found.

Vehicles are predominantly taken from minority motorists – often illegal immigrants, the investigation found. That generated quite a debate in the comments on our web site, which you can read here (if you are strong of stomach).

We have asked several OC police departments to reflect on these numbers and what they mean. We’ll get back to you with their analysis.

Related articles:

• Study Examines Statewide DUI Checkpoints, Including LAPD’s (laist.com)
• Car Seizures At DUI Checkpoints Raise Money, Legal Questions (huffingtonpost.com)
• CA Sobriety Checkpoints Snare Illegals, Pad Tow Companies? (thecarconnection.com)
• CA Sobriety Checkpoints Are Becoming More About Profit Than Drunk Driving (dvorak.org)