Illinois traffic safety check

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sctman800

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Police had one set up Friday nite about midnite on my way home from work, one of the southbound lanes blocked off and stopping everyone. I turned off two blocks before the stop and when I did a cop car pulled up behind me, then just watched me as I drove a block west of the main drag and then got back on the highway a block past the stop. I was very careful to drive legally down the street because I know he wanted to stop me for going around the "check" but didn't have a reason. If memory serves me correctly people would get stopped and questioned about avoiding these "checks." I am wondering if something has changed legally to prevent cops from stopping people for nothing except avoiding the hassle.
Just to clarify things, I don't like being stopped for anything, especially nothing but driving legally down the street. Yes, everything is legal, license, insurance, plates, no drinking, no possesion of drugs or alochol, the only thing possibly illegal would be a burned out tail light I havent noticed. I just don't like lines or sitting in traffic and will drive out of my way to avoid road construction or known traffic hang ups. Jim.
 
You'd be very surprised to know that roadblocks stop all sorts of things... drunks, immigrants with no license, driving under suspicion, wanted persons... the list goes on. You'd think by seeing a hundred flares, two hundred road cones, and a dozen cops you'd not try to get through if there was something "negligible" in your personal history. But no.

Anyway, going around a sobriety check point wouldn't give enough reasonable suspicion to stop a vehicle, much less probable cause to cite a driver. The cruiser was most likely following you to detect any clues for a drunk driver, and following you for 2 or 3 miles would give adequate time for him to check your plates for expired, suspension, wanted, etc depending on how slow or fast his mobile data terminal is operating.

If I were you, I wouldn't give this much thought. Law abiding citizens have nothing to fear from police sobriety checks.
 
Vex, law abiding citizens have nothing to fear from unwarranted random home searches either.
 
If you had been in Ohio, you would have gotten stopped for either following the edge line too closely, following the center line too closely, taking the corner too wide, taking the corner too short, or for a light out on you license plate, which when you and the officer looked, would be lit and the comment would have been made, "I guess it's a loose bulb being intermittent."
Well that has been my experience at any rate....and I have insurance, don't drink, and check my lighting at regular intervals.
 
After all law abiding LEOs...

If I were you, I wouldn't give this much thought. Law abiding citizens have nothing to fear from police sobriety checks.---Vex
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Sounds good to me as long as each person checked could select a LEO at random for drug and alcohol screening. After all law abiding LEOs have nothing to fear from drug and alcohol screenings. Right?:)

Respectfully,

jdkelly
 
We probably ought to be randomly screening LEOs for steroid use, as well. It's becoming more and more popular among them!

Checkpoints of this sort are a hallmark of a police state. Oh, the U. S. are still a basically good and decent place in which to live and the officers tend to be not impolite; but even a clean, nice, well-run police state is a bad thing. They don't seem to stay "nice" or "well-run" for long, either. Funny, that.

Get out of IL while you still can. It's a bad place. (YMMV!)

--Herself
 
Sure, THR is a gun forum. Civil rights are also discussed in the L&P section.
Biker
 
Legal and Political (87 Viewing)
Get informed on issues affecting the right to keep and bear arms and (OTHER CIVIL RIGHTS.) Coordinate activism, debate with allies and opponents. Discuss laws concerning firearm ownership, concealed carry and self-defense.

IS this a gun forum??? See above.


All I can say is "papers please,"
 
After driving cars for close to 40 years, I've just experienced these combloc checkpoints twice in the last six months; this is in the middle of Mayberry, RFD. I'm disturbed at the trend.

First time, two moto-cops. Officer high-and-tight mumbles "license check!"; I ask, is there a problem? Why did you stop me? "License check!!" (in command voice) Don't you need probable cause or RS to pull people over? " License check!!" (hand on pistol butt, nods to officer shaved head down the road). At this point, I pull out my wallet, flip the license, he glances at it for .10 seconds, and waves me onward. As I'm coasting past officer shaved head, I again ask, why are you pulling people over? His response: "Because we can" (glancing at my inspection sticker.) After thinking about later, I decided to call Lt. Clendenin (NCSP) to speak with him about it...I got his voice mail, left a message; he never called back. Thanks officers, you're trying real hard (and successfully) to alienate the public!

Second time, I thought it was a parade in downtown Mayberry, about 6 squads with lights flashing, same general routine, except this time the guy actually read my license. I ask "Don't you guys need RS or PC for a traffic stop?" His response: "This isn't a traffic stop". Me: Oh, then I can drive right through, then? Officer: "If you did that, we'll chase you." :banghead:

Its hopeless, really.

Last week, one guy turned off to avoid one of these combloc checkpoints, in Durham, NC. High speed chase ensued, in which the officer wrecked out, literally broke his squad in half, multiple injuries including broken legs. They found the evader a few days later, shot him dead when he tried to escape.

Link: http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=29024&siteSection=1

Oh, this combloc checkpoint program is really producing results!!

I'm convinced no logic in the world can penetrate these officers/administrators skulls; that this trend is damaging freedoms and abhorrant. I think it all boils down to: money. I'd bet the programs are funded by targeted grants, and represent free overtime for the participating officers (LEO's feel free to comment on this). As such, they are nothing more than mercenaries in occupied territory.

Open question: What's an appropriate response? I'm thinking...when asked for license at the next combloc checkpoint, "could you repeat that with a German accent, please?". You think that might activate his brain cell, or will I end up with a boot on my neck?
 
I have never been subject to this particular police state tactic (and that is exactly what it is, no matter if every Supreme Court Justice alive has signed in his own blood that this is constitutional -- it is still a police state tactic, and you will never convince me otherwise). I think steam would literally come off the back of my neck if (when?) I get stopped for this nonsense. And no, I have nothing to hide, except perhaps contempt for those who conduct such an operation.

One of the things that police and their political masters need to understand is that without public support, they cannot survive. Be very careful when you squander public goodwill by using such tactics. It may, in the long run, be a very bad idea.
 
The idea here is to get the Sheeple

to believe that it is ok to just stop them for no reason, enter your home and check it for no reason.......eventually you have them programmed enough they don't fight back for any reason. Heeeeeeerrrrrrrreeeees Dictator Daley!:what:
 
no matter if every Supreme Court Justice alive has signed in his own blood that this is constitutional


Any one can feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that the Illinois Supreme Court did not rule these "safety checks" to be constitutional. They ruled it was "a reasonable price to pay for the increased safety on our roads." Jim.
 
Work to Change the Laws in the States

SCOTUS said paper checks for no cause were good-to-go a few years back. One should remember, this is the body that approved Kelo, Dred Scott, & Plessy v. Ferguson.

Modern-day Bull Connors will not be held accountable for their actions, so we'd best endure as best we can and work to outlaw such practices via our state legislatures.

Of course, LEOs & their management could examine their consciences and decline to use such combloc tactics after reflection on the COTUS and the nature of liberty. Hard right vs the easy wrong & all that. Doing the right thing even when one has the authority & opportunity to do the wrong thing is a sign of a well-developed moral compass.

Herself said:
We probably ought to be randomly screening LEOs for steroid use, as well.
Click to expand...
Testing for the fourth-fave LEO drug of choice (after alcohol, caffeine, tobacco--though 'roids could give tobacco a run for third, more & more) would nab quite a few, as would testing those in military service, with especial attention to SWAT/FRT on the LEO side & SOCOM on the military side.
 
Looking for a drunk driver in Westville? Aw, c'mon.

Sounds more like Belgium, where they don't seem like thay have much to do sometimes.
 
So, would you all rather not have sobriety checkpoints, and instead allow the drunk drivers to break the law without fear of such checkpoints? Fine, you take the checkpoints away, and I'll let you know next time i get hit by a drunk (That's the same argument as, "Fine, you take away guns, and I'll let you know next time I'm confronted by criminals," isn't it?).

I'm sorry, but I think you're all way too extremist libertarian for me. Sobriety checkpoints take 30 seconds to go through, and they keep roadways safe. They're not taking law abiding citizens to jail. Don't want to be afraid of check points? Don't break the law. They're not asking you for "papers" to be a citizen... and in case you didn't know, checking your driver's license is not a civil rights violation: Driving on public roadways is not a right, it's a priviledge, and you have to prove you have that priviledge.
 
So, would you all rather not have sobriety checkpoints, and instead allow the drunk drivers to break the law without fear of such checkpoints? Fine, you take the checkpoints away, and I'll let you know next time i get hit by a drunk (That's the same argument as, "Fine, you take away guns, and I'll let you know next time I'm confronted by criminals," isn't it?).

I'm sorry, but I think you're all way too extremist libertarian for me. Sobriety checkpoints take 30 seconds to go through, and they keep roadways safe. They're not taking law abiding citizens to jail. Don't want to be afraid of check points? Don't break the law. They're not asking you for "papers" to be a citizen... and in case you didn't know, checking your driver's license is not a civil rights violation: Driving on public roadways is not a right, it's a priviledge, and you have to prove you have that priviledge.
Click to expand...

In summary, "We're from the government and we're here to help you."
 
You will never get me to believe that a police sobriety checkpoint that nabs dozens of drunk drivers is a bad thing because it's "annoying." Don't like it, don't drive on the road.

I hear the Amish don't care about sobriety checkpoints.... ever think about converting?
 
Vex, the combloc checkpoints (aka license/seatbelt checkpoints) I experienced were in mid-morning, not exactly prime time for DUI violations. So, are you just as cavalier dispensing with probable cause/reasonable suspicion, based on chicken-poop seatbelt violations, as the primary reason for these fishing expeditions? If so, then most anything would qualify as a justification, and reasonable suspicion/probable cause might as well be flushed down the toilet, wouldn't it?

Was the license checkpoint worth the crippling of the officer (article I linked in my last post)?

What costs exactly, would be sufficient for you to rethink your enthusiastic support of these East-German inspired tactics?

How much lost in terms of respect from the public?

Or, is the prospect of guaranteed overtime, funded by target grants (state or federal) for checkpoints, clouding your vision? How, exactly are the checkpoints funded in your area?
 
The local Sheriff's office conducts sobriety checkpoint with volunteer deputies. All of these deputies were active LEOs at one time, and have since retired and joined the sheriff's reserve unit. I've been on a couple of these checkpoints as a spectator, never in any official capacity.

Sobriety checkpoints are worth the trouble, absolutely. Of the two I specifically witnessed, I'd guess the average DUI nabs was 10 or 12. This was several years ago, and I don't remember the numbers exactly. The same number (10 or 12) were caught in suspended licenses, one was a drug charge (the guy had a syringe in the center console next to a baggy, turned out to be heroine) and one was a wanted felon. I don't know why the guy was a felon.

If an officer is hurt in the line of duty, paid or not paid, then yes it's a tragedy. Is it worth it? Depends. These things are conducted by people who know what they're doing, and know what they're getting into. Sobriety checkpoints have never been assigned, they've always been strictly volunteer with reserve deputies.

Furthermore, these things are NOT mandatory checkpoints. You have the right to go around. Were you pulled over because you went around? No. You were followed to see if you're a drunk that's trying to avoid the cops. As soon as they determined that you were merely exercising your right to go around a sobriety checkpoint, and not a drunk hiding from the po-po, they stopped following you. Right?

In a police state, EVERY PERSON would be REQUIRED to go through the checkpoint. This is CLEARLY not the case.

Finally, I don't and won't believe that police officers checking for drunks will ever be an east german inspired tactic. Driving is a priviledge, it's not a right. These checkpoints have never been about "ooo, check if that ones a citizen, if not, KILL HIM" like extemist libertarians seem to think.
 
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