In the interest of public safety, it is necessary to keep the drunken drivers off the roads. However, we believe it could be done better.
Currently, the checkpoints work like this: we drive by a checkpoint, we wait, and wait, and wait, while the police check on people driving ahead of us, then it’s our turn, the officer inquires on our sobriety, and, assuming we’re sober, lets us go.
The Norman Police Department announced this week that they will set up checkpoints throughout the city this weekend. They will be receiving special funding for this from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office.
We’re receiving money from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office earmarked specifically for more checkpoints. Their goal is that more checkpoints will scare drunks from driving.
But, it really just tends to scare drinkers from driving on larger roads.
These checkpoints are an intrusion. They make us wait while we could be doing more productive things. They waste our time, which is growing more precious as finals loom ever closer.
These checkpoints also seem to be arbitrarily placed. Instead of placing them near the bars, downtown or by Campus Corner, they are put in somewhat random locations.
This is an egregious waste of money and resources. It could be more efficiently used to achieve the same end.
Instead of more checkpoints, we could have more police officers patrolling near Campus Corner, or Main Street, where there are more bars. Officers could frequent these areas more on the weekends, and less during the week when only the most dedicated alcoholics drink.
In the middle of an economic crisis, we should be more careful with our money.
We understand alcoholism is a problem on university campuses and should be fought. College students often overindulge, and have health consequences as a result.
But instead of unnecessarily hassling students, the local police could use information at hand to do their job more efficiently. We should follow Occam’s razor and not make it needlessly difficult. We should keep it easy and use the resources we have.
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My hometown managed to double the number of DWI citations without resorting to anything as invasive and insulting as sobriety checkpoints. How did they do it? They put the officers through special training on how to identify drunk drivers, how to pick out high-risk areas to patrol, etc.
Perhaps the OSHO's money could be better spent keeping these officers on patrol instead of having them stay in the same location all night as they harass every motorist that crosses their path.
An intrusion?
I'll gladly support any effort to remove a drunken driver from the road and scare them from driving despite what time it might cost me.
And have you ever driven past Campus Corner around closing time? No, because you are all underage.. You can't leave without getting pulled over, even if you haven't had anything to drink. I was pulled over after a trip to Pita Pit and cited for "not turning my headlights on when leaving." (My headlights come on automatically.) There aren't checkpoints at Campus Corner because you'll be pulled over regardless. There are eight squad cars who camp or drive around.
And from my experience, I see far more drunken drivers leaving random house parties than bars. They are driving away from small roads which are normally not checked, and can be equally dangerous.
And do you have a solution? You seem to just be complaining for the sake of complaining. What, did you editor-in-chief have a bad checkpoint experience recently and need to vent?
You can do better this.
Actually, the reason they keep doing checkpoints is because they aren't a waste of resources, at least resources that the city cares about anyway.
At these checkpoints, the majority of tickets written are for not having insurance, not having a valid drivers license and having an out of date tag. In fact, they write so many of these tickets, that the cost of running the checkpoint is normally made up in the first hour. Therefore, all of the money they make off of tickets that they write in the next four or five hours goes right into the bank, or wherever government money normally goes.
If you want to put an end to these checkpoints, and I mean really put an end to them, everyone needs to stop breaking the law. Get insured, keep your license and tag valid and up to date and don't drive drunk. The checkpoints are a cash crop for the police, and it's one that they will keep harvesting if people give them the opportunity.
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