Holiday DUI Checkpoints - are drunk driving checkpoints legal?

It's not your imagination, in reality there are more police on the streets during the holiday period and therefore there is a greater chance that you could be arrested for DUI. For the 2009-2010 holiday season, the dates of this period occurred in the execution of the San Francisco Bay Area is the 18th December 2009 to January 3, 2010. To go back up a calendar for the checkpoints along the road in your area to californiaavoid.org.

Since 1973, the Santa Clara ChapterDo not set itself the task of death, reducing drunk driving during the holiday season. This coordinated law enforcement by 125 participants and 9 Bay Area counties in their efforts to raise public awareness, including through increased funding for additional officers and checkpoints along the way overtime. Drunken-driving arrest peak during the holidays. Last year during the 2008 holiday season, reported to prevent the 827 DUI arrests in Santa Clara Countyalone.

The checkpoints are constitutional court?

The argument that DUI checkpoints are a violation against the Fourth Amendment, which protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures. While twelve states to maintain checkpoints and allow this faith, the California is not one of them. The likely cause is not necessary. The Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that the injury the second floor of the Civil Rights DUI roadblocks, which had the potential publicBenefits of Distance impaired and dangerous drivers off the road. The California Supreme Court adopted the following requirements to be met so that the attacks may be legal:

Checkpoints are to be published in advance or
points or control points are added based on statistics of drunk driving
O time will be programmed for efficiency and minimal invasiveness
O stops on the road must be made according to a formula - not from accidental or profileTargeting
Or the alternative routes must be present
o spies signs must be clearly aware of the driver of delays and threats
O driver can not be taken over the required minimum retention
o A supervisor must approve the measures to stop non-official

Even if you did not drink, can be a checkpoint for a checkpoint to make anyone nervous. Remember that the control points of the holiday for public safety, and are not intended to beHarassment. Remember, the above requirements for checkpoints to be constitutional. For your role to know their rights, so as not to burden yourself.

If the officer asks if you drink?

You may ask if you have been drinking, but you should remember that all I can say what they want and can be used against you. It 'better to say nothing. Not to condemn. Your task is first and fifth amendment right to protectionSelf-incrimination.

It can be searched for the car?

to search the car must be probable cause. If an officer asks if the vehicle looking politely refuses. Remember, what you say may be used against you, so you do not provide additional information.

You need to submit sobriety tests when stopped?

Most states, including California, have laws that allow the refusal to take a sobriety test results on the field one year automatically impliedSuspension of the license privilege. This suspension through a DMV hearing may be appealed. What's more, you can still get from driving under the influence if there are other documents that you drink, which might include the presence of empty bottles of alcohol or the smell of alcohol on your breath be condemned. If the choice between a blood test and a breathalyzer, you can opt for the latter as an alcohol test results are less reliable, and be challenged in court byExperts.

What if I only had one drink?

Remember it is not illegal to drink and drive. It 's only illegal to drink while driving. However, be very careful, because so little as.04% BAC (blood alcohol concentration) can mean loss of value.

0.08% BAC is the legal term under California law. So, two drinks, you can bring across the border, according to the weight, what you eat and your physiological makeup. It 's always better to have a designatedDriver. A higher that.15% BAC can phrase it more difficult. Also, as you can first DUI conviction in harsher punishment called domain extensions.

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