Laguna Beach to Debate End of Sobriety Checkpoints

A proposal by a Laguna Beach City Council member to end sobriety checkpoints in the city has touched off a storm of opposition, which is expected to come to a head Tuesday when parents and school officials lodge their protests.

Councilman Paul Freeman acknowledges the measure has almost no chance of passing, but he wants it fully debated because he says random checks of motorists infringe on civil liberties, waste money and are an unnecessary inconvenience for the public.

“As a practical matter, I am not sure I am going ahead with anything,” Freeman said. “The community sentiment seems to be running with keeping the program.”

The Laguna Beach program, which is funded for two years with a $90,000 state grant, has such wide support that school officials are considering canceling or shortening the Tuesday evening school board meeting so parents and officials can protest at the council session.

“Parents of the PTA are very upset at the possibility of losing the checkpoints because we feel a little inconvenience or stepping on some 1st Amendment rights is well worth the price of getting some drunk drivers off the road,” said Betsy Jenkins, president of the Laguna Beach Unified PTA Council.

The checkpoints have become routine throughout the state since the state Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that police can detain motorists to check for signs of intoxication without the suspicion of wrongdoing required for a traffic stop.

Most major police departments in the county use checkpoints, with the largest cities, as well as the Sheriff’s Department, setting them up on a periodic basis.

“We do them on an as-needed basis and find them effective,” said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Luis Ochoa.

The Sheriff’s Department runs checkpoints in all nine of its contract cities in South County, while the California Highway Patrol handles checkpoints in north Orange County, where the agency is in charge of highway safety, said Sheriff’s Department Capt. Tom Davis.

“The department has a $375,000 state grant to do checkpoints for alcohol abuse and safety issues, such as use of seat belts and baby seats,” he said. “It is designed to decrease traffic accidents and protect lives.”

Police are required to follow guidelines created by the courts and the state attorney general’s office to ensure that the stops are random, properly supervised and do not use profiling to single out people of a particular ethnicity, race or gender.

Use of the checkpoints was further reinforced in 1993, when the state Supreme Court voided a requirement that officers provide advance warning, including putting signs on the road so drivers could choose to turn off before passing through the checkpoint.

The controversy in Laguna Beach was set off this spring when a checkpoint created a 20-minute backup when the conclusion of a wedding coincided with a checkpoint on Laguna Canyon Road.

Laguna Beach Police Chief Jim Spreine said the department has since added an officer to monitor the traffic to ensure that any backup does not exceed 10 minutes.

Spreine considers the checkpoints important both for deterrence as well as education, particularly in a city that attracts numerous tourists and visitors.

Laguna Beach ranks 15th out of more than 400 cities statewide in the number of alcohol-related driving accidents per capita, he said.

The city arrested 348 people on suspicion of DUI in 1999, about 7% below the 10-year average for the city.

“We are having an impact,” Spreine said.

Under the grant program, the city runs a checkpoint each month, typically on a weekend between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Pacific Coast Highway or Laguna Canyon Road. In 1999, 17,989 vehicles passed through the checkpoints and 8,787 drivers were screened. As a result of an initial assessment, 360 people were asked to take a field sobriety test and 85 were arrested on suspicion of DUI and 15 others on other charges, he said.

Councilman Wayne L. Peterson predicted a storm of opposition.

“I don’t care if the wait [at a checkpoint] is 20 minutes or 30 minutes, if it keeps one drunk driver off the road it is worth it,” he said. “We haven’t heard one complaint about it.”