DUI SOBRIETY CHECKPOINTS

IS A SOBRIETY CHECKPOINT LEGAL?

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that sobriety checkpoints are constitutional and are not illegal searches and seizures in violation of the 4^th Amendment.   The reasoning was that the public’s interest outweighs the minor and temporary intrusion.  However, the Supreme Court declared that the primary purpose of the sobriety checkpoint cannot be to detect evidence of crimes or to arrest drunk drivers, but only intended to safeguard the public by preventing drunk driving. Because of this, sobriety checkpoints are classified as serving a regulatory purpose rather than a criminal purpose.

WHAT ARE THE RULES POLICE HAVE TO FOLLOW?

There are some rules in Pennsylvania that law enforcement must follow for them to be legal. These include:

• It should be well-lit and well marked and located in a stationary spot, and sufficient warning to drivers must be given.

• Police should use a neutral mathematical formula, such as every fourth vehicle should be stopped.

• Police should be located at that spot for several hours.

• The checkpoint should have prior police administration approval and ideally should involve planning by an administrative judge and a district attorney.

• Police should advise the public of the sobriety checkpoint by making an announcement through local media, although they’re not required to disclose the exact location.

• The decision of which drivers should be stopped should be set ahead of time with fixed criteria and random, not targeted at a particular person and not left to discretion of individual police officers on scene. 

• The choice of where and when to set it up should be based upon prior experience at that locale reflecting intoxicated drivers frequented that area at that time.  The essence is that officers can conduct brief stops—with no suspicion at all—to check for intoxicated drivers.  It must be brief.  The interaction can include asking a few brief questions designed to identify signs of intoxication (e.g. odor of alcohol, glassy eyes, slurred speech, bloodshot eyes).  Police can ask for name, license, registration and insurance information.  A driver has the right to refuse to make any other statements or provide additional information.  Further, if police request a driver at a checkpoint to submit to a preliminary breath test or to conduct field sobriety testing, the driver can refuse.

• If no obvious signs of intoxication at that point, the driver should be allowed to proceed driving away.  Take note that most modern police departments—even small departments—have their officers equipped with dashboard cameras, shoulder/chest cameras, and cameras inside transport vehicles.  This means that an officer’s claim that a driver appeared initially to show signs of intoxication should be potentially reviewable later in the camera footage.  Likewise and conversely, during the course of a DUI case, the lack of camera footage of the police interaction with the subject would be concerning and suspicious.

• After the initial detaining and questioning of the driver, if police believe a driver shows signs of impairment, he or she should then be separated to another area for conducting of field sobriety testing.  At that point, the rules related to detaining and arrest apply.  A criminal defense attorney can explain these to you, which can include an investigative stop or custodial detention (the equivalent of a full arrest).

• There cannot be a physical search as part of any initial detaining to check for sobriety.

HOW AND WHEN CAN I RAISE A CHALLENGE IN MY CASE TO THE SOBRIETY CHECKPOINT?

If you were subject to a sobriety checkpoint, and you believe the above criteria were not met, you should discuss with your attorney.  Successfully raising a legal challenge on this issue will be a process.  It normally takes the form of a Motion to Suppress evidence. It requires careful legal research by your attorney.  But first, your attorney would be asking questions at your first hearing (the preliminary hearing) pertaining to what occurred on scene with police and what they observed about you.

Thereafter, when your case is pending in the Court of Common Pleas (trial court), your attorney will be able to request and obtain the discovery (evidence) in your case and that will include any camera footage.   Camera footage that is “not available” or “not preserved” or “lost” would be highly suspicious.   Once you and your attorney have reviewed the police reports and camera footage, if you both believe it reflects that the rules above were not followed by police, then you have a potential legal challenge in the form of a pretrial motion, that gets filed and argued in front of a judge.

Before filing that motion, the most important question will then be for you and your attorney to carefully analyze what you lose (if anything) by making this legal challenge, and if you win that challenge, what you actually accomplish (i.e. some evidence can not be used but the DUI charge can still go forward with other evidence, or the evidence obtained can not be used and therefore the case will be dismissed).

If you have been subjected to a sobriety checkpoint in a DUI case, you should consult a criminal defense attorney who specializes in DUI law to understand whether there are legal challenges.

IS IT LEGAL TO AVOID A SOBRIETY CHECKPOINT OR TO TURN AROUND?

Yes!  Although checkpoints are legal, it is not against the law, by itself, to simply turn around before you arrive.  Of course, you might attract the attention of law enforcement, since they are accustomed to seeing this.  And, in the process of turning around, you must be very careful not to violate other traffic laws because if law enforcement observes one, that would be justification to pull you over for that reason.

And at that point, you have placed yourself on the radar of police in terms of suspicion of DUI.  What you need to know is that turning around by itself does not justify detaining you on suspicion of DUI, nor is it a violation of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code (traffic laws) to simply turn around and avoid a sobriety checkpoint.

IF POLICE CONDUCTED A SEARCH OF MY VEHICLE AFTER A SOBRIETY CHECKPOINT, IS THAT LEGAL?

This issue is more complex. The analysis requires more steps, but there will be an answer.  You should discuss it as a possible initially in the first conversations with your attorney, but understand that your attorney will always want to wait until actually obtaining the evidence in the case, before filing legal challenges, to see what is written in the police reports and what the police camera footage shows.