In the state of California, DUI sobriety checkpoints are legal and are enforced regularly across the state. These checkpoints have been held valid under both the United States and California constitutions. The California Supreme Court has held that DUI checkpoints are considered “administrative inspections” much like airport screenings. Because of this, they are also considered exceptions to the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution’s unreasonable search and seizure law that mandates probable cause for an officer to pull someone over to initiate a DUI investigation.

If you don’t know what a DUI sobriety checkpoint is, it’s simply a portion of the road that is blocked off by a law enforcement agency to allow for officers to check proper credentials for driving a motor vehicle as well as check to make sure that no one is operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or an illegal substance. Usually, police in a given county will set up cones and warnings along the road forcing vehicles to merge into one or two lanes before coming to a stop. Due to all of the flashing lights and orange/yellow signs, a driver can usually see a DUI sobriety checkpoint coming long before they have to get in line to wait to be legally detained.

Once you roll up to where the police officers are, they will ask you to first roll down your window and then ask for your license and registrations much like they would if you got pulled over by cop traveling 90 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour speed limit zone. Anyway, they have every right to judge your physicality and behavior as their job is to try to determine if you have been driving under the influence of alcohol.

They will do this by gauging the driver’s speech, smelling for alcohol on the driver’s breath, and looking to see if the driver’s eyes are glossy. If the police officer doesn’t see any signs of intoxication however, he has no probable cause to look further into a possible DUI charge. In other words, the police officer can’t detain someone for too long during a DUI checkpoint if that police officer doesn’t have any reason to believe that the driver is impaired.

It’s important to note that Law enforcement has to meticulously follow strict rules and regulations when it comes to sobriety checkpoints. Because DUI checkpoints are already questionably unlawful (depending on who you ask), there are strict guidelines set up for the police to follow to ensure that they stay within the bounds of the law. If the police do arrest someone without following the strict guidelines, the charges filed later could easily be dismissed even if the driver was driving under the influence f alcohol or drugs or driving with a BAC of .08 or higher. In fact, any lawyer in the state wouldn’t have a hard time getting a defendant out of a case that showed the police were unlawful in their procedures.

It’s also important to note that there is no law that says you have to participate in a DUI checkpoint if you are on the same road as a DUI checkpoint. Technically, you could turn around and take another route if you choose to do so as long as it is also legal and safe to do so. For instance, if you are driving up the road with your friends and you are already late to a concert and you see a checkpoint a couple hundred yards ahead of you, you can turn around to avoid it if you would like to. The catch however, is that if you do choose to turn around to avoid a DUI checkpoint, a police officer could use their own discretion and suggest that you were displaying obvious signs of intoxication when you turned your vehicle around to avoid being checked out for intoxication. Though it would technically be illegal for the police officer to do so, you could be in for a long and bad night even though the charges wouldn’t necessarily stick.

Know that it’s too late to refuse a law enforcement officer’s instructions after they ask you to roll down your window during a DUI checkpoint. It is illegal to refuse to comply, so the moment that a cop starts talking to you through your window, you are obligated by California state law to follow his directions. If you have been drinking, and the police officer catches that you have, you will, more than likely, be arrested for a DUI and your car will be impounded.

For this reason, the smartest thing to do is simply to not drink and drive. If you find yourself in jail following an arrested at a DUI checkpoint, another smart decision would be to retain a DUI attorney as soon as possible. A smart DUI lawyer will investigate to see whether any of the legal requirements are not met by the local law enforcement agency. If just one of them is sloppy or not adequately implemented, the entire case could be dismissed regardless of what charges you may or may not be facing.

At the Law Offices of Max Gorby, our goal is to try to keep our clients out of jail and out of trouble. We understand that sometimes people make mistakes–it is human nature. We also understand that in the event that someone does make a mistake, they are innocent until proven guilty, and that the laws put forth by the Constitution of the United States allow you to have a right to a fair trial. Since the state is using more than qualified attorneys to prove your guilt, it’s only fair for you to use a more than qualified attorney to prove your innocence. Feel free to contact our law offices for any additional questions or concerns at (323) 447-2819.