This is third-hand so I’ll try to stick with the details that I’m pretty sure of. My girlfriend’s co-worker was recently stopped about 5:30 PM in the Hampton Roads/Norfolk area of Virginia at some sort of checkpoint. It was on a road that recently had a drunk driving accident, she said the police were pulling everyone over to talk to them. She was asked if she would mind taking a survey answering some questions, they were trying to gather information on traffic that travelled that road. Not sure if any tests were mentioned at that point. She was asked if she had ever in the past texted while driving, drove while intoxicated, things like that. It sounded like a cordial and volontary matter, but before it was over, she wound up allowing a breathilizer test, getting her cheek swabbed, and giving a blood sample. When it was over they thanked her for participating and remarked that they had dealt with a lot of strange or difficult people that day.
Has anyone ever heard of something like that? I’ve heard of sobriety checkpoints, but never ones where they would ask for DNA and blood. I know I’d politely but firmly decline all such requests, I can’t believe they got all that from her voluntarily.
Never heard of one like that myself. Only checkpoints I’ve ever seen concerning law enforcement is the license/insurance checks they like to set up to catch those without one or the other. Haven’t seen one of those in almost 20 years either, come to think of it.
Nope, never heard of that and unless I was under arrest for something, I can’t imagine letting some random cops on the side of the road swab my cheek or take a blood sample. . .:eek:
I googled “virginia police checkpoint” to see if I could find anything on this, and came across a couple of things in the first few listings that I thought were odd.
The lawyer says that the police can’t stop every vehicle. The police say in their report that they stopped every vehicle. I wonder if this guy practices in that county?
And is that the same county where your friend was?
I’m even a little iffy on teh questions. I could answer honestly that I’ve never texted while driving and I’ve never DWIed, but anyone answering those questions affirmatively are admitting to crimes (at least here texting is prohibited while driving). Even under arrest, they’d better have a big fat warrant before getting any swab of anything of mine.
I have gone through a checkpoint in Ontario Canada that was stopping every car. Officially, they were just doing an awareness campaign gearing up for some long weekend. The checkpoint was running pretty in the morning, and they did at one point ask “Have you had anything alcoholic to drink today?” and I remember saying something along the lines of: “Holy crap, it’s 8am do people actually drink this early??” and the cop laughed. There was no breathalyzer or anything like that. They were passing out pamphlets and stickers if you had kids.
I’m sorry this account is pinging my BS-O-Meter so hard it’s about to explode. “but before it was over, she wound up allowing a breathilizer test, getting her cheek swabbed, and giving a blood sample.”
A DNA swipe and blood sample as part of a random stop of a non-intoxicated driver? Was this co-worker suspected of being intoxicated?
Short of being a suspect in a crime or actually being DWI, I’m really going to have to see some cite that this is standard procedure.
Yeah, they usually stop every car here in Ontario at RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) check points, but even then we’re never subjected to the kinds of questions/tests in the OP. That sounds bizarre.
The first thing I asked is whether the co-worker was pulled over for DWI or something, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. She said every car was being stopped. I’d like to see a cite too, I’ve never head of a checkpoint like that.
I guess the police have the right to ask you for those things and you have every right to refuse, I just find it hard to believe it’s part of routine checkpoints now.
I have to agree on the BS-o-meter being pegged. A random stop where they asked you take a breatholyzer, cheek swab, and…uh…blood sample? Did they have a qualified plebotomist just randomly sitting at the side of the road waiting to do this? And why the blood test if they already did the breatholyzer? Isn’t that one of the choices you get if you refuse the breatholyzer and urine test? And assuming you passed the breatholyzer, but the blood test was done anyway, uh, did they make you wait at the side of the road two weeks while they waited for the lab to process all those blood samples? I mean, if they let you go and the blood turned up positive for LSD, meth, pot, etc., when analyzed later they let you drive home impaired. Surely they couldn’t do that…
My understanding is that you get the breatholyzer only upon failing other basic coordination tests. You’re saying this person was just administered this test randomly and that EVERY car was pulled over and asked to do this? I say not in a million Fourth of July/ Memorial Day/Labor Day/ post Grateful Dead concerts has this ever been done. Sounds like total BS to me.
The law in Virginia does not forbid stopping every vehicle. (See Crouch v. Commonwealth, 494 SE 2d 144, 26 Va. App. 214 (1997) for a description of a valid checkpoint that stopped every vehicle).
But it does requires that the checkpoint’s rules be determined in advance. That is, the checkpoint operators can’t check every vehicle when traffic is light, and then start to check only every fourth vehicle when it gets heavy. Any substantial discretion left to the checkpoint’s operators, rather than determined in advance, voids the checkpoint’s validity.
Sorry, but I would decline the “survey” along with the DNA and blood. Anything beyond ID/owner’s card/insurance proof and I’d be requesting legal representation.
