Check the papers and the local announcements. IIRC, Ingersoll v. Palmer, 743 P.2d 1299 (Cal. 1987) requires advance publicity of checkpoints.
And that type of drinker is likely to have a couple of quick ones on the way out the door the next morning.
You choose to live in SF, you get stuff like this. My WAG is that the bars complained that the nite-time sobriety checkpoints were costing them business, so…
But SCOTUS screwed up when they allowed these things, as they can put them anywhere, anytime.
I’m not following you about how “choosing” to live in SF “gets” me stuff like this. Does San Jose not have any sobriety checkpoints?
Anyway, 15 years and I have seen exactly two - both miles away from my sleepy neighborhood. I can’t imagine the bars near my neighborhood complaining about nite-time checkpoints, since I’ve never seen one. We’re talking bars that have a clientele of about 50 people, all of whom are locals.
I just don’t understand why they would waste the resources to test my neighbors and me as we’re going to work. How many people did they expect to catch to justify their “sting” operation - one? Two? It’d be like setting up a public intoxication checkpoint here.
That’s funny. Down here in San Diego, I saw someone who was obviously drunk on my way to work this morning. Swerving across lanes and everything.
Papers nothing. Here in Albuquerque they take out 30 second TV spots.
Heh. Back in the days when I was a cop, I used to hear a variation of the smartass remark about “maiking my quota for the day” wayyyy too often. My stock response was “No, sir/ma’am, the sheriff did away with quotas last year. Now we can write as many tickets as we want.” I’d then make it a point to look at their car real hard, because I could usually find something to write another ticker for.
Nothing like abusing your position to be a dickhead.
That’s definitely happening. DrLoveGun turned at a red light to hand a toy to our kid, and promptly got pulled over because, “regular people can’t turn like that and wear their seatbelts.” DLG simply pointed to it and blinked. Cop had to let him go.
I can’t even* count * the number of times I’ve been trashed at 9AM. And I’m sure there are a lot of times I don’t remember.
No, actually not fully looking the car over for all violations is being lenient. Him writing you up for everything he fines is him doing his job to the letter. Him being a dickhead would be him ticketing you for something you didn’t actually do.
Just because certain things (seatbelt violation, for example) aren’t frequently ticketed doesn’t mean someone is being a dickhead when they decide to punish you for breaking the law.
Anyways, cops are people too. Why should you expect them to not act like dickheads when you’re acting like an ass to them?
Wuh? Is this one of those weird American “please walk on this line” things? What about people who are simply nervous at being pulled over, or have some motor disease, or something else that might make them appear tipsy? On the other hand, plenty of high functioning alcoholics could breeze through something like that. I’ve never understood how a cop can decide drunkenness that way. Where I am, they just breathalyse you and be done with it.
Actually, the surprise at seeing a 9am alcohol test struck me as unusual too.
Here’s what happens in my jurisdiction:
Police perform “Random Breath Testing” (RBT) operations. These can and do occur on any road or street at any time of the day or night. The blood alcohol limit is not California’s 0.08, but 0.05 for most drivers, 0.02 for some young drivers and drivers of heavy vehicles, buses, or taxis, and now 0.00 for some very young/new drivers (some cough medicine or a slice of Christmas cake could put you over). A typical large scale RBT operation will involve five or six police cars, about ten cops, and a bunch of “witches hats” which they use to make a kind of “pit lane” on the side of the road. All this will be located usually just after you crest a hill or round a curve so that you don’t have a chance to escape. There is often also one cop car waiting a little distance away (often in a side street) with a cop in it and the engine running, just in case somebody throws a U-turn or fails to stop if directed - to save other cops running to their cars to give chase - this guy will be on the case withing nanoseconds. With this set-up, they will direct about half of the cars (sometimes more, sometimes less) into the “pit lane”. The other half that don’t get pulled over for testing are the ones who drive past when the police are busy with the group they’ve just got (they generally pull over everyone until they’ve got enough, deal with them, then pull over some more).
A cop approaches your window, and asks you if you’ve had anything to drink. Then you are put on a breathalyser. This unit has no legal standing in a court of law, as it is not finely calibrated enough (but it’s pretty good). What happens next if you are over the limit depends on the size of the RBT operation. A small operation will have you back at the police station pretty sharpish. Having failed the hand held breathalyser (the “device”), you’re now put on the “apparatus”, which is a bigger machine and its results will hold up in court. You are fingerprinted, the works. Several hours later you walk out of there with a court summons. You can get a criminal record out of this. At the bigger RBT operations, they have a mini-bus parked nearby, and the “apparatus” is inside, along with all the necessary paperwork and computers to process an offender on the spot. On a Friday or Saturday night, or on a long weekend when holidaymakers are on the move, the highways are infested with RBT units. One other thing is that if there is a big RBT operation on a main road here in Sydney, they will have police cars cruising the back streets to pull over people who may have heard about the RBT on the grapevine.
Across the border in Victoria, there is often no “random” about it . The police will fo a massive blitz which involves surrounding an intersection on all four side streets, blocking them with police vehicles a few hundred yards back, and breathalysing every single driver in their net. I don’t know how common this is, but it is done.
Now all that is just for official RBT oprations. As well as that, all cop cars carry breathalysing equipment all the time, and they can pull you over just on a hunch. I was pulled over a few weeks back (mid-afternoon) because I’d pulled out of a side street onto a major road, and the size street only comes from one place - the pub. As I drove out, I saw a cop approach on my right, and sure enough he went by then I looked in my mirror and he did a U-turn and was behind me waiting at the lights in no time. After we went through the lights, the sirens came on as soon as there was a place to pull me over. Bear in mind that I’d not commited any traffic offences. When he asked me if I’d had a drink, I replied “not yet”, and pointed to the (sealed container) bottles of beer in a bag on the passenger seat (I’d been to the pub’s liquor store only). He’d smelled the scent of fresh drink driver blood, and now he could see he was probably going to have wasted his time, putting him in a grumpy mood, so after I passed the inevitable breathalyser test, he checked my licence (saw I was only making the 3/4 mile trip home), my registration sticker, and all four of my tyres for tread level. He got nothing and growled a “thank you sir, have a nice afternoon” at me. When hot-looking cars full of teenagers get pulled over, the police usually make them pop the hood and the car will be gone over with a fine toothed comb.
A week after that, I went past an RBT operation at about noon. I wasn’t pulled over that time.
Another time about five or six years ago, I was pulled over in the middle of nowhere by an unmarked police car - it was a beat-up fifteen year old Toyota Celica. There must have been an RBT on the main road, and I was on the back street.
My boss says he was pulled over three times in one trip home across the city.
And people still drink and drive!
Anyway, random drug testing (cheek swabs) is coming soon as well. Before State Parliament now, as I believe.
So I don’t think you’re being overly hassled in SF. 
As somene who grew up with the Australian system of blowing in the breathalyser, i also used to be pretty skeptical about these "follow my finger"type of tests.
However, having been involved in discussions on this issue on these Boards, and having been directed to various websites about the tests, i can say that my ignorance has been fought. It does indeed seem that the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test (the name for the test where they ask you to follow the pen) actually has a very high rate of accuracy in the hands of someone who has been taught to administer it properly. The reason is that the eye movements for which the tester is looking are completely involuntary, and have nothing to do with whether or not you are a “high functioning” alcoholic. In fact, about the only people likely to test inccurately on a consistent basis are the very small percentage of the population who have a natural gaze nystagmus.
This is not to say that it’s 100 percent accurate. Studies claim an accuracy rate of around 80-85 percent. But that’s generally good enough to hold someone and take them to the station for a proper breathalyser or blood test. If you want to read a couple of articles about the HGN test, have a look at these:
And if you want to see a video of the test in action, check this out (warning: direct link to .wmv format video).
Yes. What the hell was that? Follow the pen? Follow it where? What does it do when you follow it?
What insane amount of equipment? Around these parts, a sobriety checkpoint can involve a cop on the side of the road waving you down and you speaking into the sniffer thingy (name and address). If you fail that then you blow in the bag, fail that you are away for a blood test at the cop shop (NOT personal experience…it was my brother).
No following pens (?), walking lines with a finger on your nose, no insane amount of equipment.
There is/was a NZ public service announcment that featured 2 blokes heading off to work, talking about their night out on the town, while noshing down on the traditional after drink brekkie…a meat pie. They are pulled over and when the cop asks them to speak into the sniffer thingy, the driver says something along the lines of “Mate I’m on my way to work”.
The drink she does linger.
Ooops. I shouldn’t post while trying to cook dinner, I my point has already been covered.
Sorry.
Thanks for that, mhendo. Interesting links. I can now say my knowledge of these US-style tests has a better basis than old reruns of COPS.
Not at 9 AM on a quiet residential street. 1AM on a main drag in an area full of bars, sure.
No problem.
Maybe the OP would be happier if the San Francisco newspapers offered this public service (images from the “Headlines” section of Jay Leno’s Tonight Show website):
Sobriety checkpoint announcement…
:eek: :smack:
LOL. That was pretty much where my “knowledge” of walk-the-line-tests came from too. :o
Take a fucking joke and get over yourself. The same could be said for any cop that would abuse their power because of a simple remark like that.
YOU are the sterotype of a conservative that has a Redwood up his ass, you humorless dickweed.