Police in Sonoma County plan three DUI/license checkpoints this weekend.
Santa Rosa officers will run a checkpoint from 7 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday at a location police won’t disclose.
The Avoid the 13 Sonoma County DUI Task Force, in which all county police agencies participate, will hold two checkpoints, also at undisclosed locations. But odds are good that at least one of them will be in Petaluma because Petaluma police coordinate the task force.
Petaluma Police Sgt. Ken Savano said the three checkpoints are part of the task force’s 18-day, countywide crackdown on drunken drivers that lasts through the Labor Day weekend.
As through Wednesday — Day 13 –the Avoid the 13 had arrested 119 drivers on suspicion of DUI, 24 others on DUI warrants and one on a DUI probation. Savano said a total of 11 people had been injured in six crashes related to drunken driving. None of the crashes has been fatal.
Funding for the Avoid the 13 campaign and Santa Rosa checkpoint comes from the state Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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MindyoBizness
This is the biggest boondoggle ever, check the national statistics on DUI checkpoints the arrests are few and the convictions ever fewer most of the cases will get thrown out of court for lack of reasonable suspicion, and or constitutional rights violations. The officers will rake in lots of overtime/holiday doubletime pay this is ridiculous. Government watchdogs ashould look into this abuse of spending and put that monety into making the roads safer as the money was intended and not as an cash generator for law enforcement officers.
August 31st, 2012 9:19 am
James a
Why does the press democrate tell people of these check points that they are going to happen .it makes me sick that this helps out the drunk drivers.it should be against the law .let them get caught because if they get away this time they are going to do it again.I guess you don’t have anyone in your family that has been hit or run over by a drunk driver.
August 31st, 2012 9:25 am
Giovanni Ottolini
This is great news. I cant wait to see how many are arrested and how many cars seized. WE MUST CONFISCATE CARS FROM UNLICENSED DRIVERS AND DRUNKS. UNLICENSED DRIVERS are 490% more likely to cause a FATAL ACCIDENT. ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE UNLICENSED DRIVERS. There is 20 Million ILLEGAL ALIENS in The UNITED STATES. Multiply that by 490% and you have over 90 million chances of being killed by one. MORE CHECKPOINTS PLEASE
August 31st, 2012 9:33 am
Tom
“Savano said a total of 11 people had been injured in six crashes related to drunken driving. None of the crashes has been fatal.”
Looks like getting behind your vehicle drunk is much safer than riding a bicycle in Sonoma County
August 31st, 2012 11:07 am
Road.Warrior
James A
One aspect about the checkpoints is that they net very few DUIs. Most of the arrests are for suspended licenses and such. Police say the plus in publicizing the checkpoints is that it makes people think twice about drinking and driving, so hopefully keeping people from becoming DUIs.
August 31st, 2012 12:31 pm
Bill of Rights
Random checkpoints, while legal, are incompatible with the core values this country was founded on and the public should be outraged. Instead the public seems at best, asleep, and at worst complicit.
It’s a pity that the principles that our ancestors founded this country on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence) are barely understood by a population that seems sedated. If the trend towards Orwellian surveillance, militarism of the police and the exchange of security in place of freedom/rights does not bother YOU, then examine the rational for the Bill of Rights. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution)
Random checkpoints infringe on your constitutional rights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution ) and should outrage everyone in America regardless of political affiliation, but it seems America is asleep, dozing in the soporific glow of consumer distraction. I dislike the slippery slope argument but in this case it is appropriate. Have you heard about the random Border checkpoints? How about the illegal wiretapping of US citizens on a grand scale? Or the extra judicial killing of an American citizen with no due process? Is it murder if a non military branch of the government (CIA) kills foreign nationals on a grand scale in their home country? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawful_killing)? Does the end justify the means?
August 31st, 2012 1:35 pm
Zuma
The federal govt which funds this overtime for police and therefore costs the American people most of whom dont work for the state or govt at all. But it buys votes for those that give away your money!
Why dont they give Citizens groups funding to check on the corruption in our courts and govt in general? It isnt the people of this nation that cause our problems but government is. Why must the entire nation citizens taxed to pay the unemployed in California, while the unemployed of other states dont get the same money from the federal govt? Next the fed will be funding the pensions of those who worked for govt and municipalities in California because the state has wasted the taxpayers money and promised those people more than the state could afford.
And we still of schools that cant afford to teach! Check our ratings in our schools compared to other states. I think Mississippi has a better scholastic scores!
September 1st, 2012 8:30 am