LANCASTER – The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lancaster Station will be conducting a DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint on Friday (July 18) at an undisclosed location in Lancaster, between the hours of 6 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Deputies will be contacting drivers passing through the checkpoint for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment. Deputies will also check for proper licensing and will strive to delay motorists only momentarily. When possible, specially trained officers will be available to evaluate those suspected of drug-impaired driving. Drivers caught driving impaired can expect jail, license suspension, and insurance increases, as well as fines, fees, DUI classes, and other expenses that can exceed $10,000.
In 2011, nearly 10,000 people were killed nationally in motor vehicle traffic crashes that involved at least one driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration of .08% or higher. In California, this deadly crime led to 774 deaths because someone failed to designate a sober driver. “Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed 49 lives and resulted in 893 injury crashes harming 1,113 of our friends and neighbors,” stated Sgt. Joseph Jakl of the Risk Management Bureau.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), checkpoints have provided the most effective documented results of any of the DUI enforcement strategies, while also yielding considerable cost savings of $6 for every $1 spent.
Checkpoints locations are chosen with safety considerations for the officers and the public.
Funding for Friday’s checkpoint is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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AV-Land of the Pillowcase Rapist says
They’ll check 1000 vehicles to catch one .08 BAC driver who availed himself to the early turnout and got chased down by a cop on a motorcycle. Then, those cops shining their flashlights in your window on Saturday night looking for a way to arrest you, will be pounding back the beers at the bar on Sunday while watching the football game.
A Richards says
I don’t care about the checkpoints, they are easy to avoid if your driving somewhere and are in a hurry…. I have gone through a few in the past and they went pretty quick, just got waved through…. But I don’t think they are very good at preventing what they claim they do…. That increase in officers could be dispatched throughout the valley and actually patrol for DUI drivers….
AP says
These checkpoint are ridiculous anything with half a brain to research these unconstitutional checkpoints would realize they have had almost ZERO impact on due driving. These checkpoint are for the gestapo thugs we call the police to generate revenue and keep quotas up to keep that federal funding rolling in. FTP, ACAB….know your rights and fight these unconstitutional checkpoints.
William says
@AP
Do you drive after having ‘2 beers’?
Is that why you wrote your comment?
S.Connor says
I was thinking the same thing. He is way too bent out of shape to have a clean conscience.
William says
I worked in a busy ER in the SFV and whenever a patient came in from an auto accident, it was always “I just had 2 beers”. Every single time.
They never had tequila shots or scotch and soda. Always ‘2 beers’.
Whenever I read or hear someone rant about checkpoints or other issues related to drunk driving, I now just assume they are alcoholics and are in denial.
They try to act like they are standing up for their ‘rights’ under the 0.8th Amendment which allows them to have ‘2 beers’ or something.
They protest too much.
They should just keep quiet instead of running up a red flag saying “I am an alcoholic”.
Censored says
DUI checkpoints are ineffective and are a complete waste of money and resources. It would be much more effective to have all of those law enforcement officers out on roving patrols.
You say you worked in a busy ER… I worked EMS for over a decade and I have also seen the tragic and catastrophic impact intoxicated drivers can have on people’s lives. So I agree with you that measures need to be taken to prevent such incidents, but the fact of the matter is these checkpoints are fruitless.
William says
@Censored
I Googled “Are DUI checkpoints effective?” and found this.
“A recently published article by researchers at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), a nonprofit public health research institute, points out that police agencies are not using sobriety checkpoints often enough. The article, published in a recent issue of Traffic Injury Prevention, reported that while 37 states conduct sobriety checkpoints at least once or twice a year, only 11 states do them on a weekly basis.7 Prior research found that more frequent and better-publicized sobriety checkpoints could cut fatal DWI crashes by 20 percent, which translates into thousands of lives a year. An earlier PIRE study also looked at why sobriety checkpoints aren’t used more frequently and examined commonly held assumptions about sobriety checkpoints: they are too costly, they use too many officers, they yield few arrests, and the public opposes them. None of this is true, according to the research, which determined that checkpoints are effective and cost-efficient.”
What did you base your comment on, Censored?
BTW I wish they’d make up their minds. DUI or DWI and why do they keep changing things and adding unnecessary confusion?
AV-Voted the most stressful place in California to live says
Here’s a news flash, BAC .08 isn’t even close to being drunk. The BAC was lowered to make that almighty dollar and jack up arrest stats. Keep it sensible, this conversation wouldn’t even happen.
Censored says
Well, William, I base it off of more than a quick Google search. I base it off of several hours of original research (read, sifting through statistics) conducted as part of my education. If you would like some sources which compare checkpoint effectiveness to roving/saturation patrol effectiveness, see the following:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Battling+DUI%3A+A+comparative+analysis+of+checkpoints+and+saturation…-a097857809
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17895515
I do not believe that we shouldn’t be spending money and resources to enforce sober driving. I believe we should be spending that money on more effective methods.
William says
@Concerned
I clicked on your link and found this>
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I didn’t bother with your second link.
Censored says
If you are actually interested, copy/paste the link with the “…-a097857809” portion. The comment field treated the dot as the end of the address.
But since you “didn’t bother” with the second link, I am guessing you aren’t all that interested in the topic.
William says
@Censored
So, it’s a draw. I provided a study and you provided a study concluding the opposite. The study I referenced said that more checkpoints were needed but then people will bring up the Constitution and their ‘rights’ yada, yada, yada.
It’s hard to quantify the nature of people’s relationship to alcohol and substance abuse with their relationship to laws and regulations regarding driving or in general but I suspect that they are connected
But, what I have noticed is the howling from people on this site for the last year or two whenever these checkpoints are announced. I’m guessing it’s not because they’ve read your studies and have made informed conclusions about the effectiveness of checkpoints.
Maybe the police should investigate those who are doing the howling and objecting as a preventative measure.
I’m only half joking. I can remember the same resistance decades ago when Mothers Against Drunk Driving were trying to impose stricter regulations. My rights! My rights!” they hollered.
I suspect that the people who object loudly are alcoholics, a medical condition that has a main component called ‘denial’.
You’ll notice people objecting to these checkpoints are likely the same ones that say “I just had 2 beers, officer.” if you ‘listen’ carefully to their comments.
I don’t think that people who drink occasionally and don’t have an abuse problem fuss too much about the checkpoints. It’s part of living in a safe society like we have to do to board airplanes nowadays.
On another article here today about Lancaster being ‘stressful’, there were people complaining about gang bangers, etc. alternating with others complaining that they got arrested for doing something they thought harmless. Too funny.