Police agencies all over Orange County are inviting the media to come along for their DUI checkpoints, which, as someone among the few Orange County DUI Lawyers on the front lines of  DUI defense in this county, I have repeatedly reminded people don’t work.

However, I was surprised to see an Orange County Register article mentioning in their photo caption that “DUI checkpoints in Orange County rarely result in many arrests, instead being used as deterrents.”

Funny that they would say that DUI checkpoints are deterrents, since most of the DUI checkpoint locations are not announced, a potential violation of the State of California Supreme Court’s Ingersoll case.  If they were not trying to catch people, but merely deter them, shouldn’t they be getting the word out early, vocally, and often, to “deter”, instead of arrest?

The article is below, and I am assuming that it’s based upon the Costa Mesa Police Department after report, which was first published at the Costa Mesa PD website, here.

“COSTA MESA – Motorists on Tuesday night for the most part didn’t let the holiday season ruin their good judgment, as a DUI checkpoint netted just one suspected drunk driver out of nearly 300 cars.

Costa Mesa police from 6 p.m. to midnight staged the sobriety-screening operation on Santa Ana Avenue at 18th Street. During that time, 296 vehicles drove through, 142 were stopped for further screening and 11 motorists were screened for drunken driving, but in the end, there was one DUI arrest. …”

Allegedly related articles:

• Adults behaving allegedly badly (timesunion.com)
• Tawny Kitaen Arrested!! (ithinkheblogs.com)
• Free Tipsy Tows for the Overly Inebriated Tomorrow Night (laist.com)