Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would have set stricter rules for police in operating DUI checkpoints, including giving two hours notice of a checkpoint’s specific location.

The bill, AB1389, by Assemblyman Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, would have set uniform standards for how DUI checkpoints operate across the state, based on a 1987 state Supreme Court ruling, Ingersoll v. Palmer, that allowed the checkpoints if certain factors are met. Local checkpoints have been operated in accordance with the court’s ruling. But AB 1389 would have made some changes to local DUI checkpoints, including:

–Police would have had to provide at least 48 hours notice of the checkpoint’s general location and two hours notice of the specific location. Now, local police typically are as general as possible in giving the location, such as somewhere in Santa Rosa or somewhere in Sonoma County, and refuse to give a specific spot.

–Drivers who encounter a checkpoint could have avoided being stopped “by simply making a legal turn within the confines of the existing traffic laws.” Now, some drivers who turn away are stopped by officers.
In vetoing AB1389, Brown said, “While I understand there are concerns that sobriety checkpoints are being operated improperly, this bill is far too restrictive on local law enforcement.”

Brown, in his veto statement, singled out aspects of the bill that he apparently had issue with: The announcement of the specific location, “allowing drunk drivers to avoid detection altogether,” and the bill’s statement of preference for checkpoints to be conducted after dusk “even though fatal driving injuries involving drug use occur between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.”

DUI checkpoints are a key issue for Sonoma County’s social activists because in addition to arresting a handful of DUI suspects at the checkpoints, police often arrest many more unlicensed drivers. Those suspects typically are illegal immigrants who are barred under state law from getting licenses, so their cars often get impounded. That’s why nearly every local DUI checkpoint has activists down the street with signs in Spanish warning of the checkpoints. Their hope is that illegal immigrants will turn away from the checkpoints before it’s too late.

Follow the Road Warrior on Twitter via @PDRoadWarrior