Checkpoints for Checkpoints

Roadside sobriety checks, introduced in Orange County last year by the Anaheim Police Department, are now going through the constitutional checkpoints of their own. The issue seems almost certainly headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the first Orange County case last January, North Municipal Court Judge Betty Elias refused to admit evidence against a drunk-driving suspect arrested by Anaheim police at a sobriety checkpoint. She ruled that the stop was unconstitutional because police had no “probable cause” to make it, so the suspect, whose blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit when arrested, was released. The case is being appealed. Later, North County Municipal Court Judge Richard Weatherspoon found no constitutional infringement in denying a similar motion from another drunk-driving suspect stopped at an Anaheim checkpoint.

Orange County judges are no more divided over the issue, however, than those in courts across the country. Supreme courts in five states have reviewed the checkpoints and found them to be constitutional. Three other state supreme courts have decided that the checkpoints violated the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment right against unlawful search and seizure. Two state supreme courts have allowed that while checkpoints properly operated might meet the constitutional test, the methods used in the cases before them did not.

Judges are right to protect people from unreasonable stops and searches. But we’re inclined to agree with the supreme courts in New York, Maryland, Arizona, New Jersey and Kansas that have held the sobriety checkpoints to be legal and in the public interest, and with California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, who contends that there is a “solid legal and constitutional basis” for law-enforcement checkpoints.

Surveys show that most California motorists submit willingly to produce inspections and mechanical safety checks, and think that expanding searches to discourage drunk driving is just fine.

While the legal dispute goes on, Anaheim police, disturbed by an increase in alcohol-related accidents, are continuing to use the sobriety checkpoints. Experience so far indicates that the procedure works. One county in Maryland reported a 75% drop in alcohol-related traffic deaths after checkpoints were put into place.

Anaheim police used them seven times between Dec. 14 and Dec. 31 last year, and reported a 44% drop in drunk-driving accidents from the previous year. The accident rate jumped sharply in January and February when the roadblocks weren’t operating, so police set them up again last month. The courts should help keep them in place.