DUI CHECKPOINT APS TO CONTINUE

Google and Apple have refused to bow down to Congressional pressure and remove aps which identify the location of DUI checkpoints. However, Apple has agreed not to accept any new DUI checkpoint aps.

The pressure from Senators Schumer and Reid is interesting. One of the purposes of the checkpoints is to publicize the problems with drunk drivers. In fact the California Supreme Court has said, “Advance publicity is important to the maintenance of a constitutionally permissible sobriety checkpoint. Publicity both reduces the intrusiveness of the stop and increases the deterrent effect of the roadblock.” A concurring justice when the legality of checkpoints came before the Arizona Supreme Court wrote, “Next, the efficacy of a deterrent roadblock is heightened by advance publicity in the media and on the highways. Such publicity would warn those using the highways that they might expect to find roadblocks designed to check for sobriety; the warning may well decrease the chance of apprehending “ordinary” criminals, but should certainly have a considerable deterring effect by either dissuading people from taking “one more for the road,” persuading them to drink at home, or inducing them to take taxicabs.”

Courts have held that the primary purpose behind the checkpoints is not to arrest people but to deter drunk drivers from taking to the road. If arrests were the primary purpose the Fourth Amendment would require individualized probable cause. But since deterrence is the primary purpose the detentions are treated as administrative stops and probable cause is not necessary.

The computer apps further the causes of deterrence and education. They should be encouraged, not banned.