Missouri bill to ban DUI checkpoints a slap in the face to victims, law enforcement

Missouri state Rep. Justin Hill is at it again. Taxpayers in the state have picked up the tab for drunk drivers since 2017. That was the year Hill helped push through a bill making it illegal for Missouri to fund sobriety checkpoints using federal money. Now he wants to ban sobriety checkpoints altogether. Not only would these latest antics threaten the lives of Missourians; Hill’s bill is also anti-law enforcement.

This legislation is a slap in the face to thousands of drunk driving victims and their families. Responsible lawmakers recognize that drunk and drugged driving is a violent crime, and they have worked tirelessly to eradicate this clear and present danger from Missouri’s roads. Sobriety checkpoints reduce alcohol-related crashes and deaths by more than 20%, according to a comprehensive study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That holds true across cities, counties and states, rural and urban. Checkpoints don’t just get drunk and drugged drivers off the streets. Checkpoints save lives. Checkpoints stop impaired drivers in their tracks and are a major deterrent from getting behind the wheel in the first place. But Hill’s House Joint Resolution 111 would ban this constitutionally-protected law enforcement tool used in 37 states.

Drunk driving is still the No. 1 cause of death on our nation’s roads, killing 10,511 people in 2018 alone and injuring over 300,000 innocent victims nationwide. During the last decade, more than 2,500 Missourians were killed in alcohol-related crashes, including 240 people in 2018. Every one of these deaths was preventable.

These sudden, violent crashes forever alter the fabric of families, relationships and communities. I know. In 2002, I was a police officer in Lawrence, Kansas, working a traffic stop when I was violently hit by a drunk driver. That drunk driver ended my career as a police officer. After enduring years of painful physical therapy, I was finally able to earn a law degree. As a county prosecutor, I could still fight to keep drunk and drugged driving offenders off the roads. Today, I represent victims of this violent crime to ensure they receive the justice they deserve.

Every day, Americans drive drunk more than 300,000 times, yet only about 1% of offenders are arrested. The CDC reports that people drive drunk about 88 times before their first DUI arrest. Law enforcement needs more tools to get drunk drivers off the roads, not fewer. Hill’s bill wouldn’t just make it harder for police to do their jobs. It would embolden those who continue to break the law and put Missourians in danger.

As a former police officer and prosecutor, I am familiar with the arguments against sobriety checkpoints: that they are expensive and inconvenience the public, or that saturation patrols — large numbers of officers in a targeted location — cost less and work just as well. These arguments are false. Hill, a former police officer himself, knows the truth but wants to ignore it. His bill is personal and completely sets aside the lives of our children, families and neighbors.

Sobriety checkpoints save lives, but they also save money. The Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine found an average cost savings of $50,000 per checkpoint, including more than $3,000 in medical costs.

For law-abiding citizens, sobriety checkpoints take drivers about the same amount of time as one traffic light. And people want sobriety checkpoints: Studies show that 85% of Americans support them. Furthermore, sobriety checkpoints are endorsed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs’ Association and the National Transportation Safety Board, among other traffic safety organizations.

Sobriety checkpoints are also more effective than saturation patrols. In California, highly-publicized saturation patrols reduced alcohol-related crashes by 17%, whereas sobriety checkpoints reduced drunk and drugged driving crashes by 28%. To use one and outlaw the other is a disservice to everyone, including our law enforcement heroes who work to keep us safe every day.

Rep. Justin Hill is letting his personal crusade against law enforcement and sobriety checkpoints place everyone at risk. His bill is a clear and imminent threat to Missourians and must be stopped. I ask every resident of the state to contact lawmakers today and urge them to oppose Hill’s bill and its reckless disregard for human life.

Attorney Chris Mann is a past chairman and current board member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and a former law enforcement officer.

This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Missouri bill to ban DUI checkpoints a slap in the face to victims, law enforcement."