By Tracie Dungan, Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Lt. Mike Foster of the Arkansas State Police’s Troop H in Fort Smith contends one thing is sure to foil any sobriety checkpoint operation these days: technology. “It can be anything from cell phones to two-way radios” that tip off motorists, said Foster, whose troop polices Sebastian, Crawford, Franklin, Logan and Scott counties.
Police in parts of Northwest Arkansas still plan to use checkpoints on New Year’s Eve, but they say wily revelers and vigorous defense lawyers are making them less effective.
Those planning systematic stops say they’ll keep quiet on the when and where, partly because motorists often are savvy enough to get around them.
Friends start calling friends, especially if police have set up in an area near a cluster of drinking establishments. “For example, if we do a sobriety checkpoint on, say, the Zero Street on-ramp to [Interstate] 540, it’s common knowledge they make the announcement in the bar,” Foster said.
Troop L is planning “mobile” checkpoints instead, moving them from one spot to another every few hours.
Johnson Police Chief Vernon Sisemore said his department has abandoned checkpoints in favor of roving patrols. “We have done sobriety checkpoints in the past, and it’s gotten to the point that the majority of people have designated drivers with them,” he said. “And we don’t get any more drunks off the road.”
This New Year’s Eve, Johnson will have three officers on patrol, the number it would use on any other Friday night. “We’re catching as many drunk drivers that way as sitting in one place doing sobriety checkpoints,” Sisemore said. “It’s a little easier for us to defend in court, too,” he added. “With the checkpoint, you can smell the alcohol, but you don’t have probable cause.
“A defense attorney will say, ‘Well, did you observe any bad driving?’ And we’ll say, ‘No, we didn’t.’”
If an impaired driver is found through a traffic stop, police have more evidence to back the drunken-driving allegation, Sisemore said.
The end of the year historically brings an increase in drinking-related fatalities.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 45 percent of all auto crash fatalities during the time around Christmas and New Year’s involve at least one impaired driver.
About 30 percent of fatalities during the rest of December involve an impaired driver.
Police are using grants such as the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, or STEP, to increase the number of regular patrols.
Arkansas awarded $1.3 million in STEP grants to city and county police agencies for the year, said Bill Sadler, spokesman for the Arkansas State Police in Little Rock. The money pays for overtime to put extra patrols on the street. Another $1.1 million in STEP grants went to state police troops around the state.
In Washington County, the sheriff’s office won’t set up checkpoints this year, but it has increased patrols during the holiday season to focus on drunken driving using the STEP grants, said Capt. Dallas McClellan, who directs enforcement.
The county’s grant of about $30,000 can be used throughout the year to pay officers overtime for traffic safety, including enforcement of drunken-driving and seat belt laws and providing child safety seats to the public, he said.
At the state police’s Troop L in Springdale, sergeants, lieutenants and captains will join troopers in patrolling streets looking for traffic violations, particularly drunken driving, said Sgt. John T. Overman.
“We will be running compliance checkpoints, “Overman said, though he would not say where.” We’ll patrol areas that we feel need the most attention at the time.”
In Benton County, officers will set up both checkpoints and saturation patrols funded through a grant, said Deputy Doug Gay.
The agency typically doesn’t reveal checkpoint locations.
“It alerts people to that fact, and they’ll try to avoid those places,” Gay said. Plus, sheriff’s officials make the checkpoints mobile.
“We’ll probably have as many as three, maybe four checkpoints on a given evening, “he said.” We do have our hot spots that have been productive through the last several years. We also have found through the course of the last several years that the DWI arrests have gone down, so I think we are having an impact.”
For instance, areas where it once was common to see eight to 15 arrests, now yield two or three, Gay said. “The people that come through these checkpoints, they tend to have designated drivers.”
Bentonville will put about twice as many officers on the street to patrol on the holiday, said Lt. Dennis Spradlin.
In Fayetteville, police never have set up checkpoints, said spokesman, Sgt. Shannon Gabbard.
“We don’t have a policy in place to do them,” he said.
Sisemore said that when Johnson had checkpoints, the required protocols governed lighting, placement of alert signs, and how the cars would be stopped. For example, the agency had to have a clear plan, such as stopping every car or, perhaps every third car, as a defense against accusations of rights violations.
There was a clause for temporarily interrupting the roadblock if things got too congested.
“So there’s a lot of constitutional questions with doing a roadblock, and you have to do them right, “he said.” It’s just easier to patrol like we always do.”