Can a legal loophole get you through DUI checkpoints?

Status
Not open for further replies.
easysurfer

easysurfer

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
13,151
Saw this on the morning news. I see both sides and the story perked my interest remember thing time I got patted down by a cop because of my lisense plate frame.


A Florida lawyer is offering what he considers a foolproof way to get through DUI checkpoints: don't say a word to police. He's distributing what he calls the Fair DUI Flyer, and his video tutorial on YouTube has been viewed more than 2 million times.

Advocacy groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), however, fear it could allow impaired drivers to bypass the law, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford.

Last New Year's Eve, police waved one driver through a DUI checkpoint in Florida without even asking him to roll down his window. Warren Redlich, the man behind the wheel, believes he has found a legal loophole to dodge sobriety checks.
Click to expand...

Fair DUI Flyers help pass through drunk driving checkpoints - CBS News
 
I watched that as well. I thought it would be the kind of thing I'd only do if I was stone-cold sober. Which may as well defeat the purpose of trying it. ;)
 
Sarah in SC said:
I watched that as well. I thought it would be the kind of thing I'd only do if I was stone-cold sober. Which may as well defeat the purpose of trying it. ;)
Click to expand...
+1

Drinks too much, follows instructions carefully, remains very quiet, can locate and hold multiple pieces of paper up against the window. One of these is not like the others.
 
I think refusing a field sobriety or refusing to blow gets you an automatic license suspension here - not sure remaining silent will get you off in every state


would prolly work in TX tho
 
"There are genuinely drunk drivers that need to be taken off the road, but unfortunately the way the system works, a lot of innocent people get caught up in it and the idea of this is to help people protect themselves by not rolling down their window and asserting their rights," he said.

I'd like to know how innocent people are "getting caught up in it". If they are innocent of driving drunk they wont be arrested. Maybe once in a blue moon someone gets arrested that is borderline between being legally intoxicated or not, but its certainly not happening as much as this lawyer is trying to make it sound.

We don't use DWI checkpoints in Dallas so I cant comment on whether these placards would work or not.
 
Years ago we went out to dinner and a movie. On the way home we got stopped at checkpoint and the first question they ask is have you been drinking tonight. Well since I had a glass of wine with dinner hours before I said yes. Bad idea because they didn't want to hear that it was hours ago with dinner. So there I was at the side of the road a few miles from our house taking a sobriety test. 😬
 
Big_Hitter said:
In TX you can just refuse to blow - it helps not to say anything either as the recording can be used as evidence

one of my buddies in Houston -----> http://www.tylerflood.com/
Click to expand...

Not exactly. You can refuse to blow while youre on the side of the road, but in Dallas, officers dont have portable breathalyzers anyway. Once you are arrested you can refuse to blow at the jail, but your license will be suspended automatically (cant remember the time frame off the top of my head). Also, if you refuse to blow, the officer can get a warrant and have blood drawn from you. This is rarely done in Dallas though, unless its a holiday weekend or you caused a bad wreck or injured someone badly.
 
SteveNU said:
Years ago we went out to dinner and a movie. On the way home we got stopped at checkpoint and the first question they ask is have you been drinking tonight. Well since I had a glass of wine with dinner hours before I said yes. Bad idea because they didn't want to hear that it was hours ago with dinner. So there I was at the side of the road a few miles from our house taking a sobriety test. 😬
Click to expand...

I said yes once because it was true. I'd had a beer 6 hours before. The LEO wasn't amused, but I pointed out he didn't qualify the time frame.

I'd love to think all drunks were off the road. But Poly and Anna aren't here.

I do think there has to be a better way to get drunks off the road, while maintaining folks privacy. But JMHO.
 
I never drink and drive anymore, but in my dumb youthful days I did. The biggest risk way back then was getting your underage alcohol confiscated. I was only in a checkpoint once my entire life and that was way back in my youthful days. They had an interesting set-up. It was on the road and we could see the line forming so we took a quick turn to avoid it. Immediately on the turn there was a parking lot and we planned to turnaround there, but luckily I saw the police in that parking lot and told my friend to go straight. Pretty nice setup. Snag the people trying to avoid it and swing back the other way.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I'd like to know how innocent people are "getting caught up in it". If they are innocent of driving drunk they wont be arrested. Maybe once in a blue moon someone gets arrested that is borderline between being legally intoxicated or not
Click to expand...

Someone borderline between legally intoxicated or not is still driving impaired. No sympathy whatsoever. This "method" will be ineffective soon if not already. I have been stopped for DUI patrol and always answered the question "have you been drinking" with specifics of what and when. Never had a problem and never had a misunderstanding. Maybe I've been lucky with the jurisdictions I've been in, but I don't see the problem here. Several places I've lived allow you to refuse a sobriety test, but automatically suspend your license if you do. I have no objections to that.
 
utrecht said:
"There are genuinely drunk drivers that need to be taken off the road, but unfortunately the way the system works, a lot of innocent people get caught up in it and the idea of this is to help people protect themselves by not rolling down their window and asserting their rights," he said.

I'd like to know how innocent people are "getting caught up in it". If they are innocent of driving drunk they wont be arrested. Maybe once in a blue moon someone gets arrested that is borderline between being legally intoxicated or not, but its certainly not happening as much as this lawyer is trying to make it sound.

We don't use DWI checkpoints in Dallas so I cant comment on whether these placards would work or not.
Click to expand...


IMO just being pulled over and checked is "getting caught up in it".... and I would not appreciate it at all....

I have had to go through the stops they make close to the border to try and find illegal aliens... and had to wait for them to do some checking when they asked 'is everybody a citizen' and I answered truthfully 'no'... nobody was illegal which is not what they asked but should have...

If I have not done anything wrong, there is no reason to pull me over to check on anything.... period... but then the Supreme Court disagrees with me so I have to live with it....
 
I see this as little more than a plan to make the job of law enforcement more difficult unnecessarily.
 
Not a drinker of alcohol and don't mind the checkpoints. I'd rather see the people who are drunk or "buzzed" (they use that word in an ad around here "buzzed driving is drunk driving") taken off the road. Not sure the checkpoints do much good. I've seen people that see the checkpoint ahead and just turn around and go the other way. How many times do you hear on the news about the alcoholic that kills someone and then hear that they've had several convictions for drunk driving. I think we have more "click it or ticket" checkpoints to check to see if you are wearing your seatbelt than DUI checkpoints.
 
Last edited:
Texas Proud said:
IMO just being pulled over and checked is "getting caught up in it".... and I would not appreciate it at all....

I have had to go through the stops they make close to the border to try and find illegal aliens... and had to wait for them to do some checking when they asked 'is everybody a citizen' and I answered truthfully 'no'... nobody was illegal which is not what they asked but should have...

If I have not done anything wrong, there is no reason to pull me over to check on anything.... period... but then the Supreme Court disagrees with me so I have to live with it....
Click to expand...

So you don't believe the trade off of a small amount of inconvenience (being stopped at a checkpoint for 30 seconds) is worth getting drunk people off the road? Have you ever had a friend or family member killed by a drunk driver?

I assume you object to the post 911 added security at airports as well?
 
utrecht said:
So you don't believe the trade off of a small amount of inconvenience (being stopped at a checkpoint for 30 seconds) is worth getting drunk people off the road? Have you ever had a friend or family member killed by a drunk driver?

I assume you object to the post 911 added security at airports as well?
Click to expand...

My sister was killed 30 years ago by a DD and yes, I object to being stopped for no reason. It's a very slippery slope.

When we sacrifice our liberty for "security" we deserve neither.
 
I thought driving was considered a priviledge, not a right in most states. Thus, refusing a sobriety test, or failure to follow legitimate police instructions are grounds for losing one's licenses - even if sober.
 
More that that - it's the basis of civilized society. Everyone's "liberty" when extended beyond their own skin, beyond their own family, or beyond their own worship runs the risk of violating the "liberty" of someone else. Civilized society is the condition whereby the extending of one's liberty is constrained to the midway point between the person who's liberty is being extended and any other person, when that liberty being extended may conflict with with the liberty of any other person. This is a very difficult concept for people who have a black-and-white view of liberty to grasp. There is a tendency in such circles toward absolutism with regard to perceived rights to unconstrained liberty, when the reality is that liberty is always constrained, either by scope or to preclude it from causing conflict with the liberty of others.
 
Last edited:
utrecht said:
So you don't believe the trade off of a small amount of inconvenience (being stopped at a checkpoint for 30 seconds) is worth getting drunk people off the road? Have you ever had a friend or family member killed by a drunk driver?

I assume you object to the post 911 added security at airports as well?
Click to expand...


It is not going to be 30 seconds... there is a line... you have to wait in that line until you get to the front... heck, here a stalled car can stop you for 5 minutes easily... when I was stopped close to the border looking for illegals it was 20 minutes... the second stop was close to 5... and these checkpoints actually work better than the DWI checkpoints....

And no, I do not see the advantage... from what I read they do very little to nothing....

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. attributed to Ben Franklin...


I object to a lot of the safety measures... how many bombers have they actually stopped:confused: People get on planes with knifes, guns etc. etc. all the time... If you read from the people who know they say that it is an illusion of safety.... just like I think these DWI stops are an illusion of good police activity....

I use to fly a lot just after the attack on the WTC... I do not remember how many times they checked a bag for bomb chemicals... but it was a few.... I was stopped overseas for having a AA battery in a MP3 player!!!

Funny thing is that I few a few weeks ago... and I now getting pre-checked.... so I do not have to go thru the lines like others anymore :dance: (except that I went with DW and stayed with her so I did get checked)...


Nope, nobody I know killed by a drunk driver.... but it does not mean that I am soft on DWI... I was on a jury that sentenced a drunk driver to 45 years in prison (which means he will be there 15)... what would you do:confused:
 
Texas Proud said:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. attributed to Ben Franklin...
Click to expand...

agreed - one thing I miss about TX is the libertarian attitude
 
They had "checkpoints" all over Europe in the early 40s - I guess no one complained about those either


:hide:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

samclem
Drunk Driving--A Different Approach to Enforcement That Seems to Work
2
Replies
49
Views
5K
haha
haha
M
Best view of what a Government should be (caution very long)
Replies
0
Views
2K
mickj
M

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom