Politics & Government

DUI Checkpoints: Public Notice is the Law, Township Chief Says

DUI checkpoints and extra roving patrols will be in place throughout Lower Merion through Labor Day. The township's police chief explained recently why advance warning is issued.

Starting Friday evening and running through Sept. 5 (Labor Day), Lower Merion Township Police will conduct impaired driving, or DUI, checkpoints combined with roving patrols for drunk drivers and those under the influence of other drugs, the township announced recently.

The sobriety checkpoints are funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and must be conducted according to state law.

Responding to reader questions about why such checkpoints are made public if drunk drivers will simply take care to avoid them, we spoke late last month with Lower Merion Police Department Superintendent Mike McGrath about the practice.

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“One of the reasons we put it out is it is actually a requirement of the law that we notify the general public that a sobriety checkpoint is taking place,” McGrath explained. “In order to do them legally, we must state that we’re doing them, but it’s very general information.”

The initiative is in partnership with a national crackdown “featuring intensified, highly visible enforcement activities using the new tagline ‘Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over,’” according to a statement.

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There's an App for That (For Now)

On occasions in the past, the actual locations of DUI checkpoints were made public, too. This is not something required by law, and McGrath said the department will not be disclosing locations going forward, at least partially due to a problem that has occurred through social media.

“There are now apps out there you can download, where you can not only avoid speed traps, but you can apparently now find out where sobriety checkpoints are,” McGrath said.

Discovering several such apps, some of them warn users not to drink and drive, likely as a means of legal protection. Some are free, while others have monthly and annual rates. Police across the country are not happy with the apps (see attached YouTube report from Montgomery County, Maryland), and political pressure has been brought to bear on Apple, maker of the iPhone, and Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, to stop offering them.

Though publicizing DUI checkpoints might have a counter-effect to some degree, in that habitual offenders will go out of their way to avoid them (or feel confident that they can drink and drive with no fear), another factor outweighs that—deterrence, McGrath said. Seeking out and jailing drunk drivers is a desirable outcome, but that also means they have been on the road in an impaired condition for some time. And that’s dangerous for everyone.

“There is a benefit of advertising that these checkpoints take place, because hopefully there will be a deterrent effect on some drivers,” though by no means all, McGrath said.

Other points of law concerning DUI checkpoints are that McGrath, as superintendent, must sign off on each one individually, he said.

Another is that “you just can’t do them anywhere in your community,” he added. “You must show by statistical analysis and experience that the location you choose has shown that there is past likelihood that you’re going to find drunk drivers on it.”

That means typically that checkpoints will be staged along the major thoroughfares, such as Lancaster, Montgomery or Belmont avenues, or key intersections just off the major roads, McGrath said.


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