Gregoire is expected to announce a proposal to bring DUI checkpoints to our state. Not that I am against keeping drunks off of the road but this enrages me. It's touted as though we are one of the last ten states behind the times where, IMO, we are one of the last ten states holding on to some resemblence of freedom and not becoming a police state. If you are for being stopped and questioned at road blocks by your employees then I have a serious question for you. Do you mind if I come over and search your house any time I feel like it? No? Then you must have something to hide.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. "Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Washington".

It used to be that if you got pulled over and wern't wearing your seatbelt, you'd get a ticket. Now, they can simply pull you over.

Did you watch the news last week about the City of Seattle adding additional red light cameras. The first few (9 I believe) generated a million bucks. Greedy MF'rs are going to add like 20 more.

The part I like with the checkpoints, seatbelt & redlight cameras, it's all in out best interest, under the guise of "SAFETY". Which is true to a point.

DUI checkpoints presume quilt. Has this passed the constitutionality test?

I guess the argument can be made that red light cameras invade privacy, but I see them as reasonable deterrent to the red light running that has become commonplace anymore for some reason. Sort of like video cameras in every mini mart and gas station. Most customers don't rob the joint, but enough do that the tapes come in handy for the prosecutors.

I'd love to tell the story about 10 guys in a 15 passenger van in Kelowna. Approaching a checkpoint.. the cooler which was located between driver and passenger seat was being passed backward from seat to seat to finally rest and be hidden under a bunch of duffelbags in the back while everyone walking along the street was watching us just laughing. We were only about one vehicle from being checked and our driver was sober. Every one of the people watching us from the sidewalk was saying "stupid Yanks?" But I think they could all relate.

Gotta love BC.

As for Washington State. Just prosecute the people for their crimes in the first place and that might be a big enough deterrent to keep them from reoffending or offending in the first place. I have a cousin who has 10 DUI's. Spent a year after his 7th but didn't spend time after the others. He knows if I ever see him again 911 will be called. He can kill himself for all I care, it's the public I'm concerned about.

if they want to use DUI check points have an officer make you blow if he sees you exit a bar. otherwise there should be no such thing.

In many states, the courts have ruled that your expectation of privacy in your vehicle doesn't carry the same weight as your expectation of privacy in your home.

It boils down to the "driving is priviledge, not a right" thing.

Huh and who gave me that priviledge?
Come on Dan thats plain horse shiit there....

Dont get me wrong here I dont believe in driving while pasted but lets not give up all our rights!!! OH never mind Hitlary will do that for us....Please save me?!?!?!?!

I quit drinking over 20 years ago, but just the thought of some jerk pulling me over just because he/she can pisses me off. I have the feeling it's going to cause me trouble. I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to keep my yap shut about the lovely Gov's ideas.

If she's so damn sure that it will do more good than harm, then put it to a vote of the people.

My 2

Don't get me wrong. I've always thought these checkpoints were a load of crap. If they made made drunk driving laws more severe, there's be less reason to have these checkpoints in the first place.

Any governemt intrusion into my life without me giving them a reason is bogus.......and just being on the road isn't a good enough reason as far as I'm concerned. But until I become Dictator Lord of the US, these checkpoints will probably be a reality.

Oh they wont pull you over for nothing you have to have a visble infraction ROLLING EYES here!!!!! how hard would that be?
I get so FREEKIN tired of getting pulled over because They say I need mudflaps!!!! What a freekin load of crap!!!!

maybe if the state wasn't so gun ho on giving it to us up the arse and taking as much money. How bout instead of check points cops just start doing their job and looking for the guys driving all over the road. I had a boudy come pick me up this last weekend cause I didnt feel like I wanted to risk driving and we saw three drunk dudes driving from 16 around pearl back into gig harbor.... I know for damn sure they patrol that area hard for speeders.... so they just try and make as much money durring the day off tickets and then they're off???

At these checkpoints you get pulled over for no reason.........not even a cooked-up reason. They just yank you over, and basically give you a field sobriety test. What's stupid is they make a cop cook up some probable cause before pulling you over, but not so at these checkpoints. So, I'm not sure how you can have two different interpretations of the same law.

I'd like to see a sober driver refuse and take that "interpretation" to court. I would, but I have better things to do than go to jail...

That's the problem I see in this deal. Busting more drunk drivers has no safety benefit when those same drivers will be back on the road the next day. They can catch as many drunks as they want but it won't mean anything unless it keeps them off the road.

I think you got that right Cupo. A pretty empty promise if they don't actually take drunk drivers off the road, and from what I read in the paper, they don't.

It's not against the law to refuse a field sobriety test, only a breathalyzer.

Aunty-The problem is you will never know if you benefited from the checkpoint or not because the drunk driver that would have ran the red light and killed someone you love would have been arrested 20 minutes before. There's no way to judge the real success of such a program.

If the bitch that ran the red light at 23rd ave/E Yesler had been picked up at a checkpoint, Officer Joselito Barber would still be alive.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/18435-police-officer-joselito-alvarez-barber

If the ahole that rear ended me on I-5 doing 90mph with a BAC of .24 had been picked up earlier in the night at a checkpoint maybe my back still wouldnt be jacked up. Or, maybe if he was held longer than a few hours from the DUI he was arrested on the night before...That would have worked too!

Noone can argue that drunk driver's don't kill and hurt innocent people...I didnt mean to get on my soap box about that. The fact is that checkpoints can greatly increase the DUI's taken off the road and if one of those stops an innocent driver from getting hurt, I'm for it.

I cant buy into the arguement of "what next, you going to come into my house without a warrant?" DUI checkpoints have been in place across the country for many years and those states didn't use it as stepping stone for something more sinister and thinking that Washington would is not much more than a conspiracy theory.

Let the cop flaming begin...or should I say continue.

lmao
as a public servent you should be defending the constituition of this state instead of being a servant for whatever floats your boat causes

try remembering that i have a constitutional right to drive whereever and however without some publicly funded sychophant trying to exercise his new found power to harass citezens for a monetary gain
spellin aside leo sucks in this state of washington

l M ao
oh really...Maybe you would like to enlighten the rest of us more constitutionally challenged members and show us just exactly where in the constitution you have been granted that right.
You do however, have the right to remain silent.

Constitutional right to drive huh, is that with or without the cell phone????