It’s the weekend in San Diego. You are enjoying great food and drink. Two hours later, you are in the San Diego County jail.
All you did is run into a drunk driving roadblock or San Diego California DUI checkpoint.
Now you have to deal with an impounded vehicle, a San Diego DUI, the San Diego DMV, a possible criminal record, possibly high fines, programs, work and other hassles to the tune of almost $10,000 if all goes bad.
How to avoid this? San Diego DUI Lawyers’ Checkpoint Location service. It’s free. It gives you locations of all San Diego and Southern California DUI checkpoints. It’s a no-brainer.
Bookmark it. Save it. You don’t even need Facebook or Twitter.
Most San Diego DUI checkpoints make the government money, not to catch dangerous drunk drivers.
In many cities, for every “one” DUI arrest, a police department impounds twenty or thirty vehicles.
How did this happen? One investigation by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley with California Watch determined DUI checkpoints in California are hugely profitable. Drunk Driving checkpoints are strategically located near minority neighborhoods where undocumented immigrants flourish. California police departments take full advantage of the likelihood of seizing cars from unlicensed motorists at these checkpoints too.
“Unlicensed” has a few meanings: 1) never having been issued a license, 2) driving on a suspended license, or 3) not having one in your possession. The way the law is written, an officer is authorized to immediately arrest the unlicensed person and seize the vehicle.
In California last year, over 17,419 vehicles were seized and 12,867 unlicensed drivers were cited or arrested at DUI checkpoints. Almost 70% were undocumented or unlicensed immigrants.
DUI checkpoints are not in place to prevent drunk drivers from endangering anyone or keeping our highways safe. Why are they in San Diego California? To make money for state and local agencies during a financial crisis.
Assembly Bill 1389 and 353 were proposed to clarify the purpose of sobriety checkpoints—target intoxicated drivers, not undocumented immigrants or the poor. The bills would require the cops to make a “reasonable attempt” to identify the registered owner.
Our state-funded education budget has been snipped, clipped and cut, yet nearly $30 million goes to these sobriety checkpoints. Sobriety checkpoints are not looking for drunk drivers. They are trying to make money, and everyone needs to be informed.
Local San Diego county police departments sometimes publish the locations of these checkpoints a number of days beforehand.
Reporting DUI checkpoints to Rick@SanDiegoDUI.com or visiting this site can prevent family, friends and co-workers from suffering the tragedy of not being able to avoid a DUI checkpoint.