Posted on 01/03/2015 10:39:13 AM PST by Enlightened1
If you roll up on a DUI checkpoint smoking a cigar, cabin filled with smoke,refuse to roll the window down when ordered to do so and the officer suspects you’ve been drinking...what do you suppose he is going to do next?
A. Demand you roll the window down.
B. Shatter the window.
C. Demand you exit the vehicle.
D. Commence field sobriety.
E. All of the above.
If you picked E you are correct. A cop that suspects you’ve been drinking is allowed by law to utilize various techniques to determine if there is probable cause to continue an investigation. If you refuse to roll down the window and the officer suspects you been drinking (whether you have or not) the officer will likely not just allow you to drive away. Exception perhaps, but certainly not the rule.
Besides, a not so honest cop or hard @$$ could simply claim he smelled the odor of marijuana...then what? He gonna just simply let’cha drive on off? lol
The operative terms you supplied are “suspects you’ve been drinking”. The whole case will pivot on how that was determined. Sure, it’s easy if he swerves to the checkpoint, slurs speech, etc. But we are talking specifically about the “smell of alcohol” excuse.
In the Ohio case, the LEO’s claim that he “could simply claim he smelled the odor of” did not hold water since the passenger compartment was smokey and the window was open a very small amount. Sure, the driver can be arrested and hauled off. But when defending in court, in this case, the driver won. And it makes sense. Probable cause!! In your hypo, the cops can simply make stuff up. In many cases, that may be true, but not in this particular case where the only probable cause was the alleged smell of alcohol.
Cops now days have the full backing of the states to pop as many people as humanly possible to prevent drunk driving crashes/deaths particularly deaths of innocent motorist and or families by knuckleheads that get wasted and run into’em.
State, county, municipal jurisdictions are dead set on making believers outta people that drink and drive. They are getting very aggressive in their enforcement all over the nation and it is almost assured (with a few exceptions) that the courts WILL side with officers even when evidence is obtained in gray areas.
Luckily in Texas we do not have DUI checkpoints, but the enforcement is just as aggressive. In the Montgomery county police reporter, every single weekend, scores of DUI arrest...every single weekend.
Not sure bout other places in the nation, but I can tell ya, when a state trooper pulls you over in Texas and you pull out a placard and place it against the window...it ain't gonna turn out pretty for ya.
The placard thingy? Yes, there’d need to be a few martyrs first before I tried that.
I was in El Paso, Texas for a wedding a few years back, and drove into a checkpoint. I think it was primarily for illegal aliens, but it could’ve been for drinking as well.
Yep, there are a few checkpoints within 15 miles of the border along major roadways where all traffic exits into. This is to check for illegals.
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