Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1990 TAG: 9007040232
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That doesn't mean local and state police won't be out in full force today and through the weekend with a keen eye toward those who may be driving drunk.
"We'll just have every available trooper out on the highways," said Virginia State Police spokesman Charles Vaughan in Richmond. "We'll saturate the interstates and raise the visibility of our troopers."
And when he says every available officer, he means it.
In Wytheville, state troopers who usually inspect cars will patrol the highways that will handle a huge increase in traffic and the corresponding wrecks, breakdowns, drunken drivers and other problems of a holiday.
And with a limited number of troopers to cover the busy roads, officers need to be mobile, said state police Lt. J.B. Willis in Wytheville.
For that reason, sobriety checkpoints are not an option for this holiday and upcoming weekend, he said.
"There may be an increase in their use down the road, but right now there's no increase," Willis said.
Sobriety checkpoints are roadblocks at which a team of officers stops each motorist and checks for signs of intoxication.
Roanoke Valley and New River Valley police sometimes use them in areas where drunken driving is a problem.
The reason roadblocks are an issue lately is the Supreme Court decision, considered a great victory for law enforcement in many states where the practice previously had been banned.
The decision, however, seems to have had little effect on sobriety checkpoints in Virginia, which have faced little opposition and have never been challenged in court.
"Our procedures were valid the way they were. There'll be no change," said Lt. C.L. Fraley of the state police in Salem.
In some states, like Michigan and Pennsylvania, the issue has been argued by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which says checkpoints invade privacy, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which says: "Too bad."
By ruling that checkpoints didn't violate individuals' privacy rights, the court reversed lower court rulings that banned checkpoint programs in many states.
In Pennsylvania, unannounced checkpoints began immediately.
But in Michigan, the issue is still tied up in the state legislature and state appeals court.
Officers there are frustrated, said state police Capt. Gene Hoekwater in Lansing, the state capital.
They also are envious of Virginia's ability to use checkpoints to combat drunken driving, a problem that caused more than 23,000 deaths nationwide in each of the past two years, according to state police statistics.
"Sobriety-checking lanes are not an option in Michigan this Fourth of July," Hoekwater said. "There's some real opposition to them here."
In Virginia, sobriety checkpoints are partially responsible for the 46,044 arrests on suspicion of driving under the influence in 1988 and the 46,977 arrests last year, according to state police records.
This year, 20,659 people had been arrested through May on suspicion of driving drunk.
"And we'll have all our patrols out looking for drunken drivers this weekend," Willis said.
In Roanoke County, the new police force will be out in full force. Extra officers will be added to each shift to handle increased calls, said Capt. J.H. McCorkle.
"And there are several problem areas that will be checked on more often," McCorkle said.
Police and sheriff's deputies in Montgomery County and Blacksburg will step up patrols in "high DUI areas during the holiday weekend . . . especially around bars and from one bar to the next," said Blacksburg Capt. W.H. Brown.
Police also warn that even if people don't drink and drive, they should take precautions against those who do by wearing a seat belt.
by CNB