CHP Scrambles to Rescind Order Setting Them Up : Justices Bar Drunk Checkpoints

The state Supreme Court late Friday issued an order blocking the California Highway Patrol from reinstating sobriety checkpoints for the holiday season.

In issuing the order, the high court took the unusual step of clarifying a decision issued on Thursday when it decided to hear arguments on an appellate court decision that had prohibited law enforcement agencies from setting up the checkpoints.

Friday’s order sent CHP officials scrambling to cancel an order it had issued earlier in the day to its offices statewide to set up the sobriety checkpoints.

“We will terminate our plan to reinstitute checkpoints,” CHP spokesman Kent Milton said after officials met to discuss the court’s latest edict.

A Supreme Court ruling on the legality of the checkpoints could be a year or more in the offing.

The odd circumstances leading up to Friday’s order began Thursday when the Supreme Court voted 6 to 0 to grant a hearing in an Anaheim case in which the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled on Sept. 19 that random stops of drivers subjected motorists to unconstitutional searches.

The CHP, responding to that ruling, had halted its use of the roadblocks.

Under the Supreme Court’s usual procedures, its one-line order of Thursday removed the Anaheim case from the lawbooks. Since it was the only precedent in the state that prohibited sobriety checkpoints, the court’s action, in effect, allowed the checkpoints’ use once again.

After consulting with the attorney general’s office, CHP Commissioner James E. Smith quickly issued a directive to CHP offices statewide to reinstate its practice of randomly stopping motorists in search of drunks.

Teletypes were sent to each of eight major CHP districts Friday morning telling them that they were authorized to establish the checkpoints during the holidays. CHP spokesmen from San Diego to San Francisco had said they planned to use the technique during the next two weeks.

But later in the day, the Supreme Court issued the new order--the one saying, simply, that the Anaheim case proclaiming such roadblocks to be unconstitutional would remain in effect until further notice.

The new order was signed by Chief Justice Rose Bird and Justices Stanley Mosk, Edward Panelli, Allen Broussard and Joseph Grodin. Justices Cruz Reynoso and Malcolm Lucas were unavailable to vote on the matter.

No Legislative Action

The state Legislature repeatedly has failed to pass bills to authorize roadblocks. But Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp issued a formal opinion in 1984 saying that sobriety roadblocks were legal. That allowed the the CHP and other law enforcement agencies to use them.

Two constitutional challenges were brought over the issue--and were decided differently by appellate courts in Northern and Southern California.

While the appellate court in the Anaheim case said officers needed specific grounds for suspecting that a driver was drunk before a stop could be made, judges of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco concluded that police violated no one’s rights by stopping motorists in search of drunks.

The high court is expected to hold oral arguments on the checkpoints in 1987 and resolve the conflict in a decision after that.

Stopped Randomly

At checkpoints, officers stop drivers randomly, ask them whether they have been drinking and look for obvious signs of intoxication. Drivers who seem to be drunk are given roadside sobriety tests and may be arrested.

Figures cited in court documents show that only 1% of the motorists stopped at the checkpoints are arrested for drunk driving. But advocates of the barricades say they are more effective than such statistics suggest. The general locations of the roadblocks are publicized in advance, and that may deter motorists from drinking and driving, proponents say.

Several police departments contacted Friday were undisturbed by the events of the last two days. Noting that the Supreme Court has not ruled on the legal issues, but merely agreed to decide the question, Lt. James Thalman, commander of the Anaheim Police Department’s traffic division, said, “Our city attorney has advised us not to put them up.”

Other departments questioned whether the roadblocks are effective.

Valley Checks Abandoned

The Los Angeles Police Department abandoned its weekly drunk-driving checkpoints in the San Fernando Valley last spring because the experiment failed to lead to a decrease in drunk-driving accidents and fatalities. In fact, accidents actually increased during the four months that regular sobriety roadblocks were being used.

The department instead employs teams of traffic officers which converge on problem areas and cite suspected drunk drivers.

Starting Monday, the department will begin using two converted RTD buses--complete with booking areas, restrooms, computer links to check for warrants, and phones, so drunken motorists can call friends or relatives to pick them up.

In addition, agents from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Department will accompany Los Angeles police in visits to San Fernando Valley bars over the holidays to conduct inspections of the premises and patrons.

“The easiest thing,” LAPD spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke said, “would be for people not to drink and drive.”