Incident: DUI Sobriety Checkpoint
Date of Incident: 17 March 2010
Location: Snow Hill Road at Regency Drive, Salisbury, MD
Narrative: On 17 March 2010 from 9:00 PM – 12: AM – Law Enforcement Personnel from the Wicomico Sheriff’s Office, Maryland State Police, Salisbury Police, Fruitland Police and the Department of Natural Resources Police staffed a sobriety checkpoint on Snow Hill Road in Salisbury, MD. During the hours the check point operated, a total of 213 vehicles passed through.
Charged:
Patricia Anne Croswell, 29, Salisbury, MD; Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol
Clyde Walter Floyd, 29, Trenton, NJ; Wanted on an outstanding Circuit Court Violation of Probation Warrant in a CDS Possession Case, held WCDC on $5,000.00 bond
Male juvenile, 17, Salisbury, MD; Possession of Marijuana
Male Juvenile, 17, Salisbury, MD; Possession of Marijuana
Male Juvenile, 15, Salisbury, MD; Possession of Marijuana
Marco Antonio Rodriquez, 28, Salisbury, MD; Driving While Suspended
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32 comments:
Big Brother in action. It's amazing that we so meekly surrender our liberties to let police officers stop every car without probable cause in these checkpoints.
11:37 AM Try looking at the BIG picture pal. The life they save by doing this may one day be someone you care for. I would gladly give up 5 minutes of my time to ensure at least one drunk driver was taken off the road. Not exactly surrendering our liberties unless they were arresting everyone and putting them in jail for 3 months to find drunk drivers. Go back to your fortified encampment and smoke some more weed.
I am indeed looking at the big picture. Yes, we'd all be safer if the police could search our houses without a warrant and arrest anyone they want. North Korea is a pretty safe place, after all. There is little street crime in Saudi Arabia.
Personally, though, I prefer to preserve the liberties given to us by our Creator from government encroachment. It was what our Founders believed, too.
And just look at it practically -- the cops spent 3 hours stopping every car on this road and turned up one drunk driver and five other people, four of which were arrested for minor things. Wow. Great use of our tax dollars. How many cops were sitting there to arrest these handful of "criminals"? How much did we pay for their salaries and equipment? Maybe if the cops were out there patrolling the streets of Salisbury instead of smelling everyone's breath on Snow Hill Road our county would have a lower crime rate.
You know Marc in that part of town if you didnt want to go thru the check point you would have plenty of opportunities to turn and drive around it. When they set up check points they always leave an out. I would like to point out that people who have nothing to hide hide nothing. Food for thought..
Marc,
No one said anything about searching your home. The big picture is that not everyone that went through the checkpoint was drunk, but I guarantee that everyone that went throught will think about it before they get behind the wheel drunk in the future. The police are charged with preventing crime and enforcing the law, if drunk driving is not a crime then I stand corrected. Otherwise, quit veiwing authority as Evil and appreciate the freedom and safety they provide. Don't let your paranoia rule your thoughts and actions.
Tom, if what you are saying is true, then what's the point of the checkpoint? If anyone who has been drinking or who has drugs can turn around, then it seems clear that this is a waste of taxpayer money. Thanks for making my point for me.
"People who have nothing to hide hide nothing"? Really? Your basic right to be free from government intrusion means that little to you, huh? I've never done an illegal drug in my life and, as far as I know, I have nothing illegal in my house (who knows, really, given the vast amount of laws -- I may have stored a gas can improperly or something like that), but if a police officer wants to enter my house he'll have to have a warrant. It's my Constitutional right and I think people should guard them jealously.
Marc sounds like you have been caught once or twice and don't really like the Police. These are grants they use for DUI checkpoints. So they are not the Officers from the shift that are on these datails so your streets are still being protected just like everyother day. I bet your the same person that complains when they check you at the airport and don't feel it's nessasary to hold you up. Get a grip dude whatever it takes to get the scum off the street do it.
1:41, I've never been arrested nor do I even drink all that much. My opposition to these check points is based on our constitutional rights to be free from police search unless the police have probable cause to think you've committed a crime.
I wonder how many of these anonymous defenders of checkpoints here are also complaining at the same time that the health care bill is unconstitutional. Some people's fidelity to the Constitution is about as deep as a mud puddle.
Marc, you've never been arrested but you should have stated that you don't drink&drive, not that you simply don't "drink that much" and possibly drive
I think it's great that they only caught one drunk. That hopefully means that the education process about drunk driving is working.
why is the DNR involved?
Marc I'm not saying we need to go to a dictatorship and we are not talking about just kicking in peoples doors to pull them out of there house. But it is not a right to have a license but a privelege. And when you sign for your license along with that privelege you are saying that you will abide by the laws of this and any other state. If someone is drinking and driving they give up that privelege to have that license. Plus it's no big secret that on days like St Patricks day ect there will be DUI patrols/ checkpoints. Get a DD and you will not have a problem. If I go out to dinner with my wife and have a beer or 2 my wife drives home, or these people could get a cab. I like it the cops can get as many as they can haul in I had a family member that was hit by a drunk driver in delaware and he was in a wheelchair for 12 years paralized from the neck down and had a colostame bag, he died last year very active person when he was young do you beleieve for a moment that was fair to him or his family that had thousands upon thousands of dollars in medical bills, he didn't ask for that to happen him so yes I am a little upset with your post. The Police do leave an out for people to go around as posted by someone else. If you get behind the wheel drunk it's game on as far as i'm concerned.
i agree with Marc
The checkpoints are fine with me if they take drunks off the road.Anyone with a brain should know that there will be checkpoints on certain holidays.
Look whatever you do in the privacy of your home is one thing but if you are dumb enough to toke up while driving around town,you probably shouldnt be on the road anyhow.Due to my line of work,I KNOW that there are alot of people out there driving drunk on a daily basis,and some of it is due to alcoholism which is a personal problem.However,when a drunk driver puts other peoples lives at risk,they become everyones problem.
I've been in some deep mud puddles!!!! Shut your pie hole Marc!!! It is constitutional. they dont search with out PC idiot!
Fine, 2:19, I don't drink and drive, either. My drinking (such as it is nowadays) takes place at home or, if I'm out, when I'm with someone else who is driving. Happy?
I have no problem with cops stopping drunk drivers. Occasionally I'll see a police car sitting across from Brew River or the Green Turtle late at night clearly looking for drunk drivers. If a person is swerving or driving erratically, I'm glad those police officers are there to catch them.
However, stopping every person on the road to catch drunk drivers is, in my opinion, unconstitutional and it's certainly a violation of my rights. Sure, stopping ever pedestrian and fingerprinting them or taking a DNA sample from them would probably solve a lot of crime. The same principle is at stake in these DUI checkpoints. It's the cops stopping everyone without probable cause to catch criminals. Our Constitution provides that we can only be searched if the government has probable cause to do so.
Hey Marc- if you think a simple sobriety checkpoint, intended for the sole purpose of protecting the citizenry from dumb ass drunks (isn't that what gov't is for? to protect the citizens) then wait til obama care is passed! you ain't seen nothing yet till that bill gets pushed into law. Then you'll wish for the good ol' days when the only thing you had to worry about was a simple sobriety checkpoint that doesn't affect or violate ANYONE except for the dumb ass drunk who goes through it!
not agreeing with marc, but they do NOT leave an out before a checkpoint (unless you know about the check point already and avoid that entire area). they have cops half mile away with road flares to make sure no one is doing Uturns or going out of their way to turn off that road in a hurry. i have seen numerous times these cops chasing after someone who suddenly slowed down and turns onto a side street to avoid going through the check point. that is whole reason of these checkpoints. so that everyone goes through. if they left outs before it then everyone would have gone the different route..
3:55 -- I am fully aware of the dangers of Obamacare. I've been doing all I can to help stop it. And sobriety checkpoints violate the rights of everyone who stops at them, drunk or not. If you are searched by the police when they don't have probable cause (or even reasonable suspicion) that you committed a crime, then your rights are violated.
Check points have been upheld by the liberal supreme court time and time again. You and your vehicle are NOT searched during check points.
DUI check points ALWAYS have an out after large signs prior to the last "out" are placed warning of the check point ahead. These check points are voluntary, you do not have to go through them.
Dont twist my words Marc all i am saying is if you come up on a check point and you havent been drinking then just shut up and go thru it and be on your way. Why BECAUSE like i said people who have nothing to hide hide nothing.Dont give me a ten minute lecture about govt intrusion just go thru the f2345n check point .GEEZ
Thank you anon 4:52
Marc check points are not a search, look into the simple phrase "free air"
Two facts for ya, they DO leave an out and they DO NOT stop every car.
Two facts for ya- it is law that an "out" is available prior to the check point. Every check point I've seen and have participated in has had an "out". Fact-police are not required to stop every car. As long as the stops are consistant ie every other car, every third car etc it is legal.
How much money was involved in these officers doing this checkpoint? I would like to know...6 people busted...granted that is good but seems like a waste of manpower...could have done the same with less or moved it to a better location.
once again, our tax dollars wasted! And don't tell me it was a grant...because as demonstrated by GA Harrison, it is STILL taxpayer money!
It costs just as much to pay 6 officers to make 6 DUI arrest conducting saturation patrols.
3:31 C'MON SON. GET OUT HERE WITH THAT BS.
They are ussually grants and the money has to be used for the puspose written on the grant that the state issues. If an agency has been awarded a DUI grant then they have to use it for DUI not other details. They have to document the arrest and send it back on a year end report when the grant is done.
The croswell girl drives dui all the time. Its no surprise she was finally caught.
Marc is correct.
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