Police Schedule Yet Another ‘Sobriety’ Checkpoint

By Andrew Gorosko

Police plan to conduct their third sobriety checkpoint of the summer on the night of Saturday, September 15, and early morning hours of Sunday, September 16, according to Police Chief Michael Kehoe.

Chief Kehoe declined to disclose where police plan to stage the checkpoint.

Past checkpoints have been held on South Main Street near Borough Lane, on Hawleyville Road near Covered Bridge Road, and at Fairfield Hills on Wasserman Way near Trades Lane.

“I’d like to think that because of our aggressive [sobriety] enforcement, people are heeding our word” about the perils of drunken driving, the chief said.

Although a sobriety checkpoint lasts only several hours, such exercises may leave a lasting impression on the motoring public about the dangers of driving under the influence, the chief said. Checkpoints are designed to remind the public that police on patrol are always on the lookout for intoxicated motorists, he said.

A sobriety checkpoint conducted by police on South Main Street on the night of Saturday, August 25, and early morning hours of Sunday, August 26, did not uncover any drunken drivers, but police issued a variety of other motor vehicle charges and warnings to errant drivers. Police stopped an estimated 1,000 total motorists traveling northbound and southbound on South Main Street, also known as Route 25.

Police stopped each vehicle that passed by and also pursued some motorists who on seeing the checkpoint had made U-turns in trying to avoid it.

The sobriety checkpoint planned for September 15 and 16 will be the sixth such effort conducted by town police since May 2000.

The purpose of such checkpoints is finding motorists who are driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, as well as deterring intoxicated motorists from driving. Police enforce the state’s laws on the use of seatbelts and child safety restraints at checkpoints. The sobriety checkpoints are partially funded through a law enforcement grant program.

At such checkpoints, police stop motorists and ask drivers whether they have been drinking alcohol or using illegal drugs. Police typically talk to motorists for less than a minute. Motorists about whom police have concerns are held at the checkpoint longer, and may be warned or charged depending on the circumstances.

If police suspect that a motorist has been drinking alcohol, based on the smell of alcohol and slurred speech, they conduct what are known as “field sobriety tests,” which involve observing a driver’s horizontal gaze, having a driver perform a “walk and turn” test, and also perform a “one-leg stand.”

Quantitative results on alcohol consumption are available through breath testing at the police station, in which a person blows a breath into an electronic device which measures the alcohol content in expired air. If a person refuses to take a breath test, he or she receives an automatic 180-day driver’s license suspension.

The presence of drugs in a driver’s system may be checked through urine and/or blood testing.