By Jim Baron, Pawtucket Times (Rhode Island)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rep. Charlene Lima says she favors tough drunk driving laws, but doesn’t believe that police roadblocks are the way to crack down on people who are intoxicated behind the wheel.
Rep. Lima, the speaker pro tempore who represents Cranston in the House of Representatives, has introduced legislation that would prohibit police departments from setting up DWI checkpoints even if the state Supreme Court does reconsider its stand that the tactic is unconstitutional.
“I am a strong advocate for tougher, more-effective drunk driving laws,” Rep. Lima said Tuesday. “I think that mandatory 60 days in jail for even a first time offender is acceptable.”
In a radio interview Tuesday, she went as far as to say she might favor giving judges the authority to issue 10-day license suspension to passengers who ride in a car driven by someone over the legal blood alcohol limit.
“What I don’t find acceptable,” she said, “is to abridge the rights of law-abiding citizens in order to catch the drunk driver. Stopping drivers without probable cause and having them have to prove to law enforcement that they are not drunk smacks of a police state.”
Rep. Lima points out that European countries have less of a problem with drunk driving because they have more stringent laws against it.
“Our system of justice says that a person is innocent until proven guilty,” Rep. Lima asserts. “Drunk driving roadblocks pervert justice by saying that a person has to prove to the police that they are innocent. We are fighting a war in Iraq to bring freedom to its people and in our country we are slowly taking away the individual rights of our citizens.”
Rep. Lima said she has received a great deal of support for her bill, “and I have a good feeling about it passing. Among the co-sponsors of the measure is Majority Leader Gordon Fox.
There have been no drunken driving roadblocks conducted by police in Rhode Island since the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional in 1989. Attorney General Patrick Lynch resurrected the issue late last year when he asked Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri to seek an advisory opinion from the Supreme Court to see if the present lineup of justices agree with the ban.
Lynch said he thinks the current court would allow roadblocks, calling the tactic, “a singular opportunity to help combat the epidemic of deaths and injuries caused by driving while intoxicated on our roads and highways.”
His request came in the aftermath of a report showing the Ocean State with a high number of drunk driving fatalities on its highways.
Lynch said just the publicity of having the roadblocks would act as a deterrent to people getting behind the wheel when they have been drinking. Rep. Lima said stiffer laws would have the same effect.
Gov. Carcieri is still mulling Lynch’s request.
While he considers it, spokesman Jeff Neal said, “the governor believes that drunk driving is a serious issue we need to deal with. He has asked (State Police) Col. (Stephen) Pare, to recommend alternative methods” to combat the state’s high DUI rate. “We might be able to say what those measures might be in a couple of weeks.”