Police "Papers Please" Checkpoints in USA?
 

I don't drink and drive -- I don't drink. But if stopped at a DUI checkpoint, I'd comply regardless of my personal stance on them since I like having a drivers licenes.

But I was stopped in a no-stoplight, nowhere town in the Mountains of a state west of Virginia lately at a police checkpoint. They had both lanes in both directions of a one-street down stopped with police cruisers set up for pursuit.

I got to the checkpoint and the driver asked for license, registration and proof of insurance. This was not a DUI checkpoit, it was a "papers" checkpoint. I was in a rental car and all I had was rental paperwork (who travels with proof of insurance when in a rental car?) and didn't want any problems, so I complied like a pushover :( (I also had a few passengers and we had a destination to get to and didn't want any trouble to impact them).

Are these legal? I left my home state, but technicaly I was still in the USA. Is there a compelling public safety interest in identity papers/drivers license checkpoints for motorists???

State laws may vary, but here in Illinois they are perfectly legal IF they are stopping people in a regular fasion...as in stopping every car, stopping every other car, every fifth car, stc. to show no bias or profiling.

You are in fact required to have a drivers license in your possession when you are driving and you are required in most if not all states to have proof of insurance. These are a regular feature of summertime travel here in the Land of Lincoln and have been upheld repeatedly. They sometimes call them seatbelt checkpoints, sometimes safety checkpoints, bit the purpose is always the same.

--PP

I may be missing something, but it sounds like a sobriety checkpoint to me; stop every car, ask for the papers, and observe the drivers for signs of intoxication or impairment.

IMO, given that the Supreme Court has gone out of its way to bless sobriety checkpoints with O'Connor's "the end justifies the means" irrefutable logic, I can't see how checkpoints like the one you described could possibly assault the Fourth Amendment.

My personal view is that the Fourth Amendment's funeral occurred when courts fell over each other to approve of checkpoints like you described.

Still seems odd to me that they didn't ask you any questions about alcohol as they do at most DUI checkpoints. Do you think it was possible they were looking for someone and trying to be quiet about exactly what they were doing?

The PD I retired from runs a drivers license checkpoint every few weeks and has been doing it for about a year under a grant program (provides the overtime funds for officers and dispatchers). They usually end up towing a lot of cars, as there are suspended (and likely uninsured) drivers behind the wheel, and we take your car if you're suspended. This a very different program than the sobriety checkpoints we run. It might be something like that. I haven't heard of any court challenges to it.

Back when I lived in Texas, I pulled off the loop to stop at KFC. Right at the entrance to the KFC--which was about 50 yards from the intersection--there was a cop just standing around half blocking the entrance with his patrol car. That's when I noticed the other cops corraling the frontage road down to one lane. Thinking the worse, I asked the cop if the KFC had been robbed or something. He chuckled and said no, they were running a check on DL/insurance info (you didn't have to carry a registration card because they used the window stickers and the thinking was why carry a receipt to show you paid for the sticker when the sticker shows you paid for the sticker!?).

Anyway, that's when he pointed out that my window sticker was indeed expired by 3 days but he let me slide since I seemed like a nice guy :D

There is a tiny (2 sq mi) little speck of a town landlocked by Arlington, Texas called Dalworthington Gardens. The police there used to run checkpoints all the time. It was a known speed trap location and unless you had a special resident sticker on your car, they would nail you for a $150 fine for 3mph over! The would run the DL/insurance checkpoints all the time and defended the practice by showing off their 3 or 4 arrests (a couple of failure to appear warrants, pot possesion, open container etc), 6-9 expired/suspended license violations and many many tickets for lack of valid DL or insurance card at the time of the stop. AFAIK they are still going strong.

Revenue Enhancement for the city???

Absolutely! Whether under the guise of checking seat belts, insurance, or DL, the main focus for these is revenue generation. The modern, and so far court-sanctioned, version of speed traps. Almost always with a "for your safety" theme these are very profitable, especially for smaller municipalities. Once you are stopped, they can become an "instant vehicle inspection".

Proof positive that the Fourth Amendment is more or less a suggestion, rather than a part of the Bill of Rights. :(

Public safety can go take a flying one. :mad:

Something that I have wondered about these requests for "proof of insurance"

What does the piece of paper prove? The insurance could have been cancelled due to non payment, but the little piece of paper will have the original expiration date on it. Here in NC the police never ask for "proof of insurance" since the insurance company will inform the DMV of your lack of insurance and cancel the registration. My insurance agent told me that the main reason that we get a "proof of insurance" is to try to minimize the harassment at out of state police encounters.

Causing traffic jams? I was stuck in a 1 hour traffic jam for a DUI checkpoint on the night of my wedding (thankfully after). Thanks, I love police officers so much more now. :mad:

[No, I was nowhere near the limit (2 drinks > 4 hours before).]

Well, Virginia is not exempt from doing things like this. I remember the cops standing on the side of the road and pulling people over who didn't have a current car tax sticker. In Greenbelt, MD they sometimes do seatbelt checks for children the same way, i.e., and office standing on the side of the road stops everyone and looks inside to make sure kids are buckled up, or in car seats.

Here in northern Virginia, the cops love to stand at the toll booths at the main toll plazas of the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway to nail people when they slow down to go through the toll booth.

While I agree with you about what police in NC do, I thought we paid for insurance six months at a time and got a card valid for that time period.

At least in Maryland, the state will still harass your for insurance even though you turn in your plates before you cancel insurance or bought a car and gave them your insurance policy. I've gotten 2 notices in the last month for cars I either bought or sold. It usually ends up having to fill out an affadavit that you no longer have the car or you have to call your insurance agent and have them send in the paperwork to avoid fines. You're guilty until proven innocent.

They're just idiots.