![]() The police department started its latest roadblocks in January in an initiative it calls “Ticket Arrest Tow." The class-action lawsuit says Jackson police are violating people's constitutional right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure by using roadblocks in majority-Black and low-income neighborhoods to try to catch crime suspects. Morgan and Rhoades are among several named plaintiffs in a lawsuit that the Mississippi Center for Justice filed Thursday to challenge the constitutionality of police roadblocks in Jackson. “These roadblocks are important when we have communities that have been plagued by carjackings, plagued by various forms of violence,” Lumumba said. 14 news conference, Democratic Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba described them as “useful tools” to the police department. ![]() If the prosecutor fails to meet that burden, i.e., that the checkpoint was reasonable and constitutionally conducted, then your case may ultimately be dismissed.Jackson - which has a Black mayor, a Black police chief and a mostly Black police force - has been using roadblocks for years, with multiple officers stopping vehicles to check for driver's licenses and auto insurance and to try to find people who are wanted on arrest warrants. Courts have generally upheld further screening after the initial stop if the screening officer observed "any articulable sign of possible intoxication."Ĭases involving a drunk driving roadblock or sobriety checkpoint should always be challenged because Massachusetts criminal law places the burden on the prosecutor to prove that the roadblock seizure was conducted in accordance with the law and guidelines and was therefore constitutional. Once a car has been selected at the DUI / OUI roadblock or sobriety checkpoint and only if the police officer has reasonable suspicion, "based upon articulable facts" that the driver may be operating under the influence, only then may he lawfully direct that driver to submit to a secondary screening. At this stage, the police officer is looking for any signs that might suggest the operator is operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, such as blood shot eyes, the smell of alcohol, or any other indicia of drunk driving. the public must be given advance notice.Īt the initial stop at a drunk driving roadblock or sobriety checkpoint, the police or screening officer will speak to the operator and explain what is occurring.the site selected for the DUI / OUI checkpoint must be a "problem area", in other words, where accidents or drunk driving arrested have previously occurred and.assurance must be given that the procedure utilized by the police is conducted pursuant to a plan devised by law enforcement with standard, neutral guidelines that clearly forbid the arbitrary selection of vehicles to be stopped.the selection of cars stopped must not be arbitrary.In those cases, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that, in order for a OUI / DUI roadblock or sobriety checkpoint to be constitutional, four things must be satisfied: The landmark cases concerning OUI / DUI Roadblocks or Sobriety Checkpoints in Massachusetts is Commonwealth v. In other words, if the police or law enforcement have any discretion in which vehicles are stopped, the constitutionality of the sobriety checkpoint will not upheld. Even fixed checkpoints where police stop cars according to no set plan or pattern are unconstitutional and illegal. The reason police must operated a DUI / OUI checkpoint according to a previously-devised plan is because it would be illegal to target which vehicles to stop. The United States Supreme Court has upheld police using OUI / DUI Roadblocks or Sobriety Checkpoints if they are reasonable and balance the public interest in reducing alcohol related accidents against a person's constitutional rights. The selection process employed by police, however, must not be arbitrary and the procedure must be conducted to a plan devised by law enforcement.īy way of background, a stop of a car at a police roadblock, no matter how brief, is considered to be a warrantless seizure that implicates the constitutional protections of the United States Constitution and the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. Massachusetts State Police and local police departments routinely utilize roadblocks or sobriety checkpoint as a method to enforce the Massachusetts Drunk Driving Laws.Īs it concerns DUI / OUI Roadblocks or Sobriety Checkpoints, Massachusetts law permits the police to stop randomly stop vehicles without evidence of impaired operation, erratic driving or other civil motor vehicle offenses.
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