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The Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force Launches 'Drunken Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.' Crackdown on August 17, 2007
Operation Wolf Pack Designed to Remove Impaired Drivers from Cuyahoga County Roads
CLEVELAND, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Drunken driving is one of America 's
deadliest crimes.
In 2005, nearly 13,000 people died in highway crashes involving a
driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of
.08 or higher.
That is why the members of the Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force announced
today they will begin Operation Wolf Pack on Friday, August 17. Forty-five
Cuyahoga County Law Enforcement agencies will be joining resources to
conduct concentrated saturation patrols throughout the county. Between 75
and 100 officers are expected to assist the selected enforcement activities
on the Friday and Saturday nights of the nationwide crackdown, which runs
over three weekends.
"The enforcement is to target specific areas to minimize DUIs on the
road and educate the public," said Commander Mark Kwiatkowski, who oversees
Bedford Heights' efforts. "Impaired driving is 100 percent avoidable. There
are no excuses."
Two locations each night have been designated as the base of operations
for each Wolf Pack detail. Officers assigned to each detail will saturate
the designated areas looking for impaired drivers. Briefings are scheduled
for 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. each night.
The following areas have been targeted for the Wolf Pack details:
Friday, August 17
-- Miles Road / I-480 / SR 43 - The briefing will begin at 10 p.m. at the
Bedford Heights sobriety checkpoint on Miles Road at I-480; nine police
departments will be working the detail at this location.
-- Broadway Road - The briefing will begin at 11 p.m. on Fleet at E. 55th;
five police departments will be working the detail at this location.
Saturday, August 18
-- Rockside Road / I-480 / I-77 / Broadview Rd. - The briefing will begin
at 10 p.m. at the Seven Hills/Parma combined sobriety checkpoint on
Broadview Road at E. Sprague; seven police departments will be working
the detail at this location.
-- Broadway - seven police departments will be working the detail at this
location.
Friday, August 24
-- Mayfield / I-271 - The briefing will begin at 10 p.m. at the South
Euclid sobriety checkpoint at 4130 Mayfield Road ; five police
departments will be working the detail at this location.
-- Euclid Ave. - The briefing will begin at 11 p.m. on E. 185th at Neff;
three police departments will be working the detail at this location.
Saturday, August 25
-- Columbia Road - The briefing will begin at 11 p.m. at the Olmsted Falls
sobriety checkpoint on Columbia Road one mile south of I-480; eight
police departments will be working the detail at this location.
-- Lorain / I-90 - The briefing will begin at 10 p.m. on Lorain at W.
150th; five police departments will be working the detail at this
location.
Friday, August 31
-- Royalton Road - The briefing will begin at 10 p.m. at the North
Royalton sobriety checkpoint on Royalton Road at Abbey; five police
departments will be working the detail at this location.
-- US 42 / SR 3 - The briefing will begin at 11 p.m. at W. 25th at
Franklin ; five police departments will be working the detail at this
location.
Saturday, September 1
-- Mayfield Road / I-271 - The briefing will begin at 10 p.m. at the
Lyndhurst sobriety checkpoint on Mayfield Road.; five police
departments will be working the detail at this location.
-- E. 185th / SR 2 / Euclid Ave. - The briefing will begin at 11 p.m. at
the Euclid sobriety checkpoint (location TBD); two police departments
will be working the detail at this location.
The media is welcome and will be accommodated at each night's event. If
requested, rides with officers during their patrols will also be
facilitated. We urge you to come out and help get the message out to the
public that if motorists have been drinking, they should not drive.
"The effectiveness of a joint agency DUI task force cannot be
overstated," said Euclid Police Department Captain Tom Brickman, of the
Cuyahoga County DUI Task Force. "It not only removes a high number of
impaired drivers from our roadways, it also sends a message to the public
that the police are out in force and they should consider another form of
transportation before they start a night of partying."
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Does anybody have any info on how effective these sobriety checkpoints are? Seems to me that, since they announce them ahead of time, they'd be fairly useless. On the otherhand, I suppose folks who drink too much and get behind the wheel of a car aren't the sharpest tools in the shed to begin with, so they probably get a surprising number of DUI "candidates."
Just curious...
[color:"white"]"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."
-- Mark Twain [/color]
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Had my roommate not come and got me from the bar about a year ago (after going thru it sober on the way home), I know one in Strongsville that would've been quite effective on our favorite Beerdowner.
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Well, I suppose if these checkpoints make people think twice about getting behind the wheel drunk, then they've paid for themselves and then some. 
[color:"white"]"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."
-- Mark Twain [/color]
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Steeler
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Quote:
Does anybody have any info on how effective these sobriety checkpoints are? Seems to me that, since they announce them ahead of time, they'd be fairly useless. On the otherhand, I suppose folks who drink too much and get behind the wheel of a car aren't the sharpest tools in the shed to begin with, so they probably get a surprising number of DUI "candidates."
Just curious...
It would seem to me that they take officers off of patrols, looking for people actually driving in an unsafe manner, in favor of a highly visible, and publicized spectacle of questionable effectiveness.
I saw one on South Avenue in Boardman a while back that started around 10 pm. Now how many drunk drivers are likely to be on the road that early? I have a feeling that they are more about visibility than enforcement.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
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All Pro
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Quote:
Rehab.
is for steelers
![[Linked Image]](http://www.dawgtalkers.net/uploads/captainphil/browns bills sig 5.jpg) When it gets cold and snows and the wind blows, you gotta be able to run the ball. - TR
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Not to take any particular side on this issue.. I decided to google any info on local checkpoints and I came across this interesting comment on an attorney's web site: http://kjlaws.com/blog/ohioduicheckpointsBy Brad Koffel, June 27, 2006 @ 11::45 a.m. Last weekend, several Ohio counties, including Franklin County, conducted sobriety DUI checkpoints. These public relations stunts do more to get veteran officers together for overtime pay and coffee than take drunk drivers off the roads. For example, 4 alleged DUI drivers were arrested in Shelby and Logan Counties last weekend. That may sound good until you look beneath the numbers. I would bet that no fewer than a dozen police officers were at each checkpoint. I would further wager that 10 of those 12 officers do not work 3rd shift so they are paid overtime. And, most of those officers are veteran officers who are at the top of the payscale. Next, those 2 counties detained 531 motorists to find 4 DUI. If you took the 24 officers camped out on a county road and deployed them throughout the county targeting impaired driving, I can assure you each of them would have found one DUI driver. So, 2 checkpoints and 4 arrests. Or no checkpoints and 24 possible arrests. This doesn't take into account the folks who avoided the checkpoints because of the advance publicity and/or signage warning of the checkpoint ahead. If Ohio is truly serious about DUI enforcement, get rid of the "coffee parties" and put those officers on patrol in the same numbers.
SaintDawg™
Football, baseball, basketball, wine, women, walleye
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I'm not a legal professional, but I've always wondered how these checkpoints can be constitutional? For one thing, it seems to be an illegal search and seizure - in the absence of erratic driving or speeding, what is the probable cause? For another thing, how is a coerced BAC test (lose your license if you refuse) not an infringement of one's 5th Amendment right not to self-incriminate?
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Rookie
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Quote:
Rehab.
Is for quitters... 
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Politics. Plain and simpel
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Checkpoints are stupid and pointless. I hate drinking and driving laws.
I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch......
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Quote:
Checkpoints are stupid and pointless.
I hate drinking and driving laws.
If you had a family member killed by a driver that had been drinking, would you still call it pointless?
[color:"white"]I've always been crazy, but it's kept me from going insane -Waylon Jennings
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Quote:
Checkpoints are stupid and pointless.
I hate drinking and driving laws.
It's supposed to be hard! If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great!
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Quote:
Checkpoints are stupid and pointless.
I hate drinking and driving laws.
Please tell that to my dead cousin, widow, and his 4 children
you had a good run Hank.
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Quote:
Quote:
Checkpoints are stupid and pointless.
I hate drinking and driving laws.
I've always said that Chuck Palahniuk had much better charachters in Haunted and Choke...ones actually worth being a message board name
When it gets cold and snows and the wind blows, you gotta be able to run the ball. - TR
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Legend
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I know a guy that feels the same way you do. He's doing 12 days right now for his third offense. He feels he got the shaft because of these stupid laws. The car he hit was parked and empty for gosh sakes. He would have hit it if he even if he were sober. Just ask him.
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.
- John Muir
#GMSTRONG
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Not a big fan of drink drivers me. If i'm taking the car, i won't have a single beer. Lots of "Booze Buses" here in Oz, i didn't know anyone personally in the UK that lost their licenses (bit of a stigma to it there but not saying it doesn't happen by any means.) I know at least 6 people over here......and my social circle is very small....it's just the culture i guess. A former work colleague of mine lost his license. He was at an art gallery and it was free (booze).....he blames the waiter dude for continuously re-filling his glass with red wine.  I kid you not....... Now, on the other hand, don't get me started on revenue raising speed cameras..... 
#gmstrong
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Quote:
I'm not a legal professional, but I've always wondered how these checkpoints can be constitutional? For one thing, it seems to be an illegal search and seizure - in the absence of erratic driving or speeding, what is the probable cause?
http://www.dui.com/dui-library/california/sobriety-checkpoints/dui-checkpoints
Why Are DUI Sobriety Checkpoints Constitutional?
Attorney Lawrence Taylor explains the constitutionality of DUI roadblocks.
Have you ever wondered how police can stop you at a DUI roadblock (aka "sobriety checkpoint")? Doesn't the Constitution require them to have "probable cause before stopping you"? Yes and no.
The Constitution of the United States clearly says that police can't just stop someone and conduct an investigation unless there are "articulable facts" indicating possible criminal activity. So how can they do exactly that with drunk driving roadblocks? Good question. And it was raised in the case of Michigan v. Sitz, in which the Michigan Supreme Court striking down DUI roadblocks as unconstitutional. In a 6-3 decision, however, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Michigan court, holding that they were constitutionally permissible.
Chief Justice Rehnquist began his majority opinion by admitting that DUI sobriety checkpoints do, in fact, constitute a "seizure" within the language of the Fourth Amendment. In other words, yes, it appears to be a blatant violation of the Constitution. However, he continued, it's only a little one, and something has to be done about the "carnage" on the highways caused by drunk drivers. The "minimal intrusion on individual liberties," Rehnquist wrote, must be "weighed" against the need for -- and effectiveness of -- DUI roadblocks. In other words, the ends justify the means.
The dissenting justices pointed out that the Constitution doesn't make exceptions: The sole question is whether the police had probable cause to stop the individual driver. As Justice Brennan wrote, "That stopping every car might make it easier to prevent drunken driving... is an insufficient justification for abandoning the requirement of individualized suspicion... The most disturbing aspect of the Court's decision today is that it appears to give no weight to the citizen's interest in freedom from suspicionless investigatory seizures."
Rehnquist's justification for ignoring the Constitution rested on the assumption that DUI roadblocks were "necessary" and "effective." Are they? As Justice Stevens wrote in another dissenting opinion, the Michigan court had already reviewed the statistics on DUI sobriety checkpoints/roadblocks: "The findings of the trial court, based on an extensive record and affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals," he wrote, "indicate that the net effect of sobriety checkpoints on traffic safety is infinitesimal and possibly negative."
The case was sent back to the Michigan Supreme Court to change its decision accordingly. But the Michigan Supreme Court sidestepped Rehnquist by holding that DUI checkpoints, though now permissible under the U.S. Constitution, were not permissible under the Michigan State Constitution, and ruled again in favor of the defendant -- in effect saying to Rehnquist, "If you won't protect our citizens, we will." A small number of states have since followed Michigan's example.
Mr. Taylor is an attorney with the Law Offices of Lawrence Taylor and author of the standard text on DUI litigation, Drunk Driving Defense, 6th edition.
Source: California DUI Lawyer
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So in short, it IS unconstitutional, but the supreme court, decided, hey we'll just write our own constitution and violate your rights. 
"My signature line goes here."
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