Vegas police planning Spring Break DUI Checkpoints, starting today from 7pm-3am. According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, as well as the Henderson and North Las Vegas Police Departments. The scheduled DUI checkpoints will begin Friday evening and last through Sunday night, with a focus on drivers impaired by drugs and or alcohol. DUI Checkpoints in Las Vegas are a common tool used by local police agencies to combat driving under the influence offenses.
Typically, a police officer needs reasonable suspicion or probable cause in order to initiate a traffic stop. But, the Supreme Court of the United States, ruled in Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz (1990), that reasonable suspicion was not required in certain circumstances, such as, a DUI checkpoint. The court balanced the State’s interest in preventing drunk driving, against the “minor intrusion” an individual is subject to, by being stopped at a DUI checkpoint. And the court held, that the State’s interest in preventing drunk driving, outweighed the individual’s right to be free from being stopped by police without reason.
Whether or not you agree with the court’s ruling, one thing is for sure, you are subject to that decision. If you are confronted with a DUI checkpoint here in Las Vegas during Spring Break weekend, a police officer can stop and question you without any specific reason, other than the fact that you, so happened to come through that DUI checkpoint.
-Michael A. Troiano, Esq.
sources: http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/25267113/vegas-police-planning-spring-break-dui-patrols
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