Police obligated to announce DUI checkpoints in advance

On Behalf of | Nov 22, 2014 | Drunk Driving

Let’s say that you go out on a Friday night with a few of your friends to a local bar. Foolishly, your group decides to go without a designated driver — but you’re aware enough to tone back your night out. So you only have a beer or two, and you think you’re fine. As the night wraps up, you tell your friends that you feel fine and that you’re okay to drive, so you get into your car and drive home.

On the way home, you turn down a street like you’ve done hundreds of times before — except this time, there is a DUI checkpoint in the middle of it. The police stop you, give you a field sobriety test and then a breath test. They determine you are driving under the influence of alcohol, with a blood alcohol level of 0.09, and arrest you.

DUI checkpoints have a way of sneaking up on people like this, but it must be said that the police are required to inform the public when they are performing such a checkpoint, and where it will be set up. If the police don’t do this, the checkpoint is illegal and the arrest and charges accumulated from the checkpoint can be nullified.

We bring all of this up because two weeks ago, the police announced that a DUI checkpoint would be established in Laurel, Maryland on Friday, Nov. 21. That checkpoint has come and gone, and while no details have emerged about what happened during the checkpoint, we thought it was appropriate to remind readers to avoid drinking and driving, while also understanding that the police have to hold up their end of the bargain when it comes to checkpoints.

Source: Laurel Patch, “Police to Stop Drivers at Sobriety Checkpoint Nov. 21,” Deb Belt, Nov. 6, 2014

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