California DUI Sobriety Checkpoints - A Serious Misnomer
California law enforcement officers have called 2010 the “year of the checkpoint”. What they really should have called it is “year of the cash cow”.
A recent report from the University of California at Berkeley found that in 2009, DUI checkpoints generated approximately $40 million in revenue…money which is split between local law enforcement agencies and their local towing companies. Why the towing companies, you ask?
Because DUI checkpoints aren’t really set up to catch drunk drivers…that’s just the pretext. Rarely do cops arrest even a handful of drunk drivers as a result of these roadblocks…and for that matter, it’s not even that uncommon for the police to close shop on a checkpoint without making any DUI arrests.
Who the police are really after are drivers who are driving on suspended/expired driver’s licenses and those driving without a license. When the police stop these individuals, they immediately impound the driver’s car for 30 days, which costs the driver between $1,000-$4,000 to get it back. That money is split between the city and the towing company who tows and stores the car.
Let’s look at the trend -- last year, about 24,000 cars were seized at California DUI checkpoints, up from just fewer than 18,000 in 2008 and just fewer than 16,000 in 2007. Just know that as long as we are suffering a budget crisis, these alleged DUI checkpoints aren’t going anywhere.
