Orange County Criminal Attorney Blog

With the support of civil rights groups, State Assemblyman Michael Allen is seeking to restrict DUI roadblocks to their original purpose - getting drunk drivers off the road.

Minority rights activists allege DUI checkpoints are being used to run up impound fees on cars confiscated from immigrants without driver's licenses. Impounds increased over 50 percent between 2007 and 2009. Over 20 groups back a bill being promoted by Assemblyman Allen.

Civil rights groups allege these checkpoints target minorities and the poor who cannot obtain a driver's license. They allege that many who have their vehicle impounded, wind up losing the vehicle because they cannot pay the impound fee. Further, these people often lose their jobs afterwards as they no longer have transportation.

Law enforcement officials say DUI checkpoints are only about safety. A 2005 case holds that police officers cannot confiscate vehicles if they can be moved to a safe place or picked up by someone with a valid driver's license. The problem is that some municipalities do not follow this ruling. Allen's bill would codify this federal law as well as require police agencies to place checkpoints on roads which can demonstrably be shown to have a high number of DUIs.

No one should be surprised by the fact that DUI checkpoints are exceeding their original scope. When police officers are allowed to stop people without probable cause, anything can happen.

The original concept behind roadblocks was public safety because DUIs were responsible for significant public mayhem. However, once you circumvent the law, for whatever good reason, there will be unintended results. Were DUI checkpoints supposed to act as a deterrent because people knew they could be stopped, at random and without probable cause, during the isolated instances when a DUI checkpoint was in operation? Was this fear greater than the probability of being pulled over by a lone patrol officer working his/her beat? Have DUI checkpoints actually been more productive than peace officers on patrol using tried and true, as well as constitutional, police methods?

DUI checkpoints are not accomplishing the results intended. They were based on a faulty presumption. What other crime, be it murder or whatever, allows law enforcement to set up random checkpoints to investigate possible crime without probable cause?

There were two times as many DUI checkpoints in California in 2010 as there were in 2009. But the truly interesting statistic is that for every DUI arrest, there were six vehicle impounds. This may be hard to believe but the reason is not that drunk drivers are operating multiple cars. Rather, the reason is illegal immigrants are having their vehicles seized because they do not have valid California driver licenses.

In 2010, there were 17,419 vehicle seizures. A California watchdog investigation found most of these impounds involved sober, unlicensed illegal immigrants. Many of these vehicles were taken in the 1,050 state-funded California checkpoints.

There have been allegations some of these checkpoints were being deliberately setup in areas with large numbers of illegal immigrants. Cities make money from these impounds. Moreover, some illegal immigrants don't even try to pick up their cars, leaving them to be auctioned.

State Senator Gil Cedillo has repeatedly tried to change this by introducing legislation which would allow illegal immigrants to acquire a California driver license.

Licensing and insuring illegal immigrants can solve numerous problems in California. Since these individuals will be driving anyway, wouldn't it make sense to train and regulate them? Requiring illegal immigrants to possess auto insurance would also safeguard American citizens and keep thousands of unlicensed drivers off the road. Illegal immigrants would have to pay DMV costs and, with California near bankruptcy, any little bit helps. In addition, this would require all illegal immigrants to carry valid identification...their driver licenses.

This is not an argument for or against illegal immigration. These individuals are already here and, as such, measures must be taken to protect them and American citizens.