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Texas Agency Wants To Set Up Statewide Driver's
License Checkpoints
Motorists would be required to prove legal U.S. residency
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The Texas Department of Public Safety Commission wants to set
up statewide driver's license checkpoints and has requested a
ruling on their legality.
The agency wants the checkpoints to enable authorities
to stop motorists and ask them to prove they are legal U.S. residents.
The checkpoints would be staffed by state troopers
or local police who would have the power to review drivers' licenses,
vehicle registrations and proof of insurance.
AP
reports that State Senator Leticia Van de Putte (D-San
Antonio) and 14 other Texas lawmakers have penned a letter to
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott demanding that he ignore the
Department of Public Safety Commission's request claiming it is
irrelevant because no DPS checkpoint program has been authorized
by the state, a regulation that has been in place since 1994.
The lawmakers also say such a move would constitute
unauthorized immigration policymaking.
Following a 1979 Supreme Court ruling, it is considered unconstitutional
to conduct random traffic stops to check driver's licenses without
reasonable suspicion. However, road blocks and spot checks have
increasingly been used by police.
Regular driver checkpoints have increasingly come
under scrutiny elsewhere across the country with some
judges ruling them unconstitutional and illegal.
Lawmakers have also challenged checkpoints and introduced
bills to outlaw them. Rep. Charlene Lima, of Cranston,
who sponsored a 2005 bill, said the checkpoints violate people's
civil rights, and "smack of a police state." The American
Civil Liberties Union also opposes checkpoints.
(Article continues below)
The U.S. Constitution states that police cannot
stop someone and conduct an investigation unless there are "articulable
facts". Within the language of the 4th Amendment driver checkpoints
constitute a "seizure".
A more sinister aspect of driver checkpoints has
been the move by police in recent years toward taking blood and
saliva samples rather than employing breath tests, which can be
challenged. As this
report from the Wall Street journal explains:
"In the past, police routinely asked suspected drunk drivers
to blow into devices that extrapolated their blood's alcohol
content from their breath. Now, authorities in most states are
taking blood, by force if necessary.
Laws in at least seven states allow police to take blood without
the driver's consent, without explicitly authorizing force.
In most other states, court rulings have authorized reasonable
force to obtain blood. Many such rulings cite a little-known
fact about driving laws in the U.S.: All motorists are considered
to have consented to a search of their blood, breath or urine.
Such "implied consent" laws were introduced in New
York in 1953, and today all 50 states and the District of Columbia
have them."
In other
instances police have been caught putting signs up
warning drivers of upcoming checkpoints where in fact there are
none and then detaining and searching drivers who make illegal
u-turns or desperately fling contraband from their vehicles.
Now Texas officials, including the Governor Rick Perry, who
also supports the checkpoints, want to have the legal right to
force motorists to prove they are U.S. residents.
It is now the norm to consider everybody equally likely to be
guilty of something than innocent. This is proactive policing,
not preventative or reactive policing. And the worrying thing
is that this kind of policing is more widely indicative of a society
that is NOT free.
The 4th amendment was specifically created to protect
the American people against this type of arbitrary enforcement
activity by over-reaching agencies. It would seem however that
a modern day 'writ of assistance' is being operated by law enforcement
officials.
Far from increasing the security of the country,
these checkpoints serve as little more than obedience training
for the burgeoning American police state.
If you encounter a checkpoint you should ask the
personnel there if they are officers of the law, whether you are
being detained or not and if they have probable cause. If the
answer to one of these questions is no then there is no lawful
right to stop you.
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