Sobriety Checkpoint Slated For Saturday Night

By Andrew Gorosko

Police plan to conduct the second sobriety checkpoint of this summer on the evening of Saturday, August 25, and the early morning hours of Sunday, August 26, according to Police Chief Michael Kehoe.

Police plan to have nine officers on duty at the checkpoint, which will be staged at an undisclosed location. The checkpoint will be the fifth such effort conducted by town police since May 2000.

The purpose of such publicized checkpoints is finding motorists who are driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, as well as deterring such intoxicated motorists from driving, Chief Kehoe said. Police also will be enforcing the state’s laws on the use of seat belts and child safety restraints.

Police expect they will stop between 500 and 600 vehicles during the course of the seven-hour checkpoint.

When drivers are stopped, they will be briefly questioned by police to learn if they have been using alcohol and/or drugs.

On July 21-22, at a sobriety checkpoint in Hawleyville, police stopped an estimated 550 motorists. In the course of that checkpoint, police arrested three motorists on drunken driving charges, arrested one driver for drug offenses, and lodged numerous warnings against motorists for seatbelt violations and other offenses.

Chief Kehoe said the checkpoint program has proved to be an effective device to combat drunken driving. The sobriety checkpoints are partially funded through a law enforcement grant program. The grant funding is effectively spent in such programs, making a clear impression on the motoring public that police are serious about enforcing drunken driving laws, he said.

“We’re stopping hundreds of cars,” said police Captain Joe Rios, noting the thoroughness of the checkpoints which stop every passing vehicle. Police position a “chase car” near the checkpoint to stop motorists who seek to evade the checkpoint.

Such checkpoints are conducted on broad roads that carry relatively heavy traffic and have clear sight lines. The broadness of the road provides police with an area to question motorists.

Police typically talk to motorists for less than a minute at such checkpoints. 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 intoximeter testing at the police station, in which a person blows a breath into a device which measures the alcohol content in expired air. If a person refuses to take an intoximeter 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.

In some cases, drivers are so obviously intoxicated they have difficulty complying with simple commands at the checkpoint, such as stopping their vehicle, Chief Kehoe noted.

Police conducted other sobriety checkpoints last year in the months of December, June, and May.