Commentary

April 15th, 2010

Guest Commentary
by Sam Abed, Member,
Escondido City Council

The Escondido Police Department policy of conducting driver's license checkpoints has received considerable media attention and, understandably, public scrutiny during the last few years. The city's motivation remains simply focused on government's top priority: public safety. The significant benefit in improving traffic safety outweighs the reasonable and acceptable inconvenience to the general public.

All sober motorists with valid driver's licenses move through the checkpoints with minimal delays. Escondido's checkpoints are conducted without bias to ethnicity or race. Allegations of racial profiling are just not true.

The cost of police checkpoints has also been largely debated. According to our police department, checkpoints are conducted during overlapping shifts, which leaves adequate police coverage to answer service calls throughout the city effectively and in a timely manner. As for the sobriety checkpoints, those are covered by grants received from the California Office of Traffic Safety.

Officers' time is paid by the state and does not impact regular patrol staffing.

Bottom line: The traffic and sobriety checkpoints are conducted at no cost to the city's general fund.

Checkpoints have proven to be an effective local policy to deal with the rising DUI problem in California and should be supported. Sobriety checkpoints are generally considered the best deterrent, especially when their locations are well publicized. People think twice about drinking and driving if they believe there is a good chance they will be arrested.

There are hundreds of thousands of motorists in California who regularly drive on suspended or revoked licenses. Statistics also show that motorists who have never had a driver's license are almost five times more likely to be involved in fatal accidents, and they are 66 percent more likely to flee the scene of an accident than a licensed driver, even when they are not at fault.

The department policy on impounding vehicles is also consistent with state laws created to minimize the danger of unlicensed and unsafe drivers. The Legislature recognized it as a method of improving traffic safety by encouraging violators to obtain licenses and comply with vehicle safety laws.

Unlicensed drivers cited are less likely to be second offenders if their vehicles are impounded.

Since the implementation of the police checkpoints five years ago, Escondido has had a 33 percent reduction in injury traffic collisions and a 35 percent decrease in hit-and-run accidents. These overwhelming statistics support the correlation between unlicensed drivers, traffic accidents and hit-and-runs. Certainly this is enough justification to use the checkpoints as a valuable tool to improve traffic safety. This decline in traffic accidents in Escondido is a remarkable achievement by the men and women of the Escondido Police Department, led by Police Chief Jim Maher.

The benefit of the police checkpoints to the general public is clear: Traffic safety is greatly improved by removing unlicensed and unsafe drivers from our streets and impounding the vehicles they drive.

Checkpoints are widely recognized as a legitimate law enforcement strategy and are conducted throughout the state and by other North County cities. They should remain as long as they continue to improve traffic safety.

"Protect and Serve" is being practiced at its best to make the community of Escondido a much safer place for all.

Sam Abed is a member of the Escondido City Council.

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