According to a recent editorial (5/27/10) in the Los Angeles Daily News by Sarah Longwell, managing director of the American Beverage Institute in Washington, D.C. it may be time to rethink the usage of DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints. Ms. Longwell states that “it is not unusual for an all-night checkpoint to stop 1,000 drivers and make only one or two – frequently zero – drunk driving arrests.” She also states that speeding has now replaced drunk driving as the No. 1 cause of fatalities on the highway. Finally, Ms. Longwell questions why local governments pour money into costly and ineffective checkpoints while ignoring serious other threats to public safety such as texting and falling asleep while driving.

The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) has announced that 2010 will be the “Year of the Checkpoint”. OTS will be providing a record $8,000,000 in grant funding to 148 law enforcment agencies for DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints throughout the state of California. The funding is for more than 2,500 sobriety checkpoints. More than 250 DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints will take place statewide between December 18, 2009 and January 3, 2010. The funding is a whopping 47% increase from 2009 where there will be over 1,700 DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints statewide. No doubt there will be an increase in DUI / Drunk Driving arrests in 2010 which will also result in more fines received by counties statewide and substantial overtime pay to police officers who work the checkpoints and testify in court. The monies generated will most like go to reduce county budgets deficits as well.

The Salinas, California, Police Department is setting up an unusual Thanksgiving checkpoint. They will be giving away between 150 to 300 turkeys to drivers who pass through their DUI / DRUNK DRIVING checkpoint as long as they don’t get arrested for DUI / DRUNK DRIVING. For those drivers who choose to avoid the checkpoint, perhaps they can receive a chicken!