Columbia, MO
Photo: Boone County sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Weber checks the results of a motorist’s breath test during a sobriety checkpoint Friday night on Shalimar Drive off Highway 763, also known as Range Line Street. Sheriff’s deputies and police halted more than 300 vehicles that night and made six DWI arrests.
In the effort to catch drunk drivers at a sobriety checkpoint, technology can sometimes work against law enforcement officers.
Betty Kidwell, an organizer of the Boone County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said motorists who pass through the checkpoint quickly alert their friends. "They get hot on those cell phones," Kidwell said.
Kidwell, husband Tom Kidwell and another woman served supper in parking lots neighboring a checkpoint site Friday night to almost 20 Boone County sheriff’s deputies, four Columbia police officers and one Hallsville police officer on checkpoint duty.
The site on Shalimar Drive, just west of Highway 763, was chosen after officers reviewed alcohol-related arrests and wrecks in the area, said sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Ewing, the checkpoint supervisor. The street was busier than usual because it is a detour route for traffic on Brown School Road, which is closed for construction.
Motorist Mitchel Wray, 23, of Columbia, called the Shalimar site a "good place" for a checkpoint. "There’s only two ways out of this neighborhood," he said.
In the event some motorists try to avoid a checkpoint, Columbia police Sgt. Tim Moriarity said, organizers have a secondary checkpoint site where they can move if the number of cars passing through dramatically drops. Many drinkers are aware when a checkpoint is planned.
"There’s a pretty good network," Moriarity said. "I’ve been in a bar before when they’ve announced a checkpoint."
Those announcements are not a bad thing, Ewing said. Keeping motorists aware of the enforcement effort means officers are serious about drunk driving. The ultimate goal is to make no arrests at a checkpoint, he said.
Between 11 p.m. Friday and 3 a.m. yesterday, officers stopped 318 vehicles at the Shalimar checkpoint. Six drivers were cited for driving while intoxicated. Officers made arrests and issued summonses for other offenses as well, including the arrest of two men on suspicion of drug-trafficking.
A similar checkpoint last month in Hallsville resulted in one DWI arrest from among almost 200 vehicles stopped.
Motorists typically are delayed for minutes as officers look at their driver’s license and proof of insurance. An officer also walks to the front and back of each vehicle to inspect license plates.
If an officer senses signs of alcohol consumption or the driver admits to drinking that night, he or she is asked to leave the vehicle and escorted to a nearby parking lot for field-sobriety tests. A van with a Breathalyzer machine inside idles in the parking lot, waiting for any DWI suspects.
On Friday, the driver of one of the first vehicles stopped was handcuffed after allegedly driving with a suspended license, one of seven such arrests that night.
Columbia police Officer Curtis Perkins made the first DWI arrest at about 11:30 p.m. He escorted the driver and lone occupant from a passenger vehicle to the parking lot, where the driver appeared to fail various field-sobriety tests. After his arrest, a deputy said, the driver’s blood alcohol measured at more than three times the legal limit of .08 percent.
Another driver, Dwayne Whaley, 47, who lives in north Boone County, was asked to take a field-sobriety test after he told an officer he had drunk two beers about four hours earlier. He passed the test and was released.
"It was scary," said Whaley, who works as a utility meter reader. "I was scared to death."
Eventually, five motorists were arrested for driving while intoxicated involving alcohol and another driver was arrested for driving while intoxicated involving drugs. Seven people were arrested for driving with a revoked or suspended license, one driver was cited for suspicion of driving without a license, and one driver was arrested on suspicion of not complying with an ignition-interlock restriction.
Checkpoint officers issued seven summonses: four for having no proof of insurance, two for failure to register a vehicle and one for failing to wear a seat belt.
Officers also arrested three people on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance, including two men in one vehicle. The driver, Desmond Williams, 24, of Columbia, was cited for driving with a suspended or revoked license. A search of the Williams vehicle turned up about 8 grams of individually packaged rocks of crack cocaine as well as ecstasy tablets, the sheriff’s department said. Williams was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
Officers also arrested the passenger in Williams’ vehicle, Trimayne Allen, 29, of Kansas City, on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance.
Most drivers stopped at Shalimar Drive did not appear too concerned about the inconvenience.
"They’re not bad. Not bad," said Ian Sutherland, 22, of Columbia, who was making his second trip through a checkpoint. "Keeps idiots off the streets."
Labels: Boone County DWI-DUI-BAC, MADD Missouri, Missouri DWI Enforcement, Missouri DWI Sobriety Checkpoints
