To the Editor:
In the fight to get drunken drivers off the roads, Connecticut law enforcement agencies would likely make far more arrests if they spent their available time roaming the streets looking for drunken drivers, rather than standing at roadblocks waiting for these drivers to come to them (Westport Police to Set Up DUI Checkpoints, Dec. 3 ).
Because they are highly visible by design and publicized in advance, roadblocks are all too easily avoided by the chronic alcohol-abusers who compose the core of today’s drunken-driving problem.
Conversely, the number of DUI arrests made by roving patrol programs is nearly 10 times the average number of DUI arrests made by checkpoint programs, according to testimony by a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation official.
Westport residents and taxpayers would benefit from employing the most effective tactics to catch drunken drivers: roving police patrols.
Sarah Longwell
Managing Director
American Beverage Institute
Washington, D.C.
abionline.org
A reality check for that unnamed Penn state DOT Offical might be achieved in a friday night tour of roadways in the vicinity of licensed drinking establishments…
Certainly subject to debate, roving patrols vs. checkpoints is certain to generate discussion with public safety professionals but the value of checkpoints cannot be denied…..
ron malone
The same can be said about profiling.