The City of San Rafael Police Department will conduct a checkpoint this Friday, February 4, 2011, beginning at 6:00 p.m. Officers acting under a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety will start the DUI and driver’s license checkpoint on on East Francisco Boulevard at Morphew Place, operating in both directions. The drunk driving checkpoint may relocate later in the evening to the northbound Irwin Street at Fifth Avenue.
Checkpoints aimed at deterring drunk driving and keeping unlicensed drivers off our roads have become commonplace in the last several years. The courts have ruled that these checkpoints are legal provided that the police follow guidelines including the giving of advance notice to motorists, the use of proper warning signs and lighting and a neutral based formula for stopping cars.
However, driver license checkpoints have come under scrutiny in recent months as many people believe they target low income and immigrant neighborhoods with many illegal residents. In California an illegal immigrant cannot obtain a driver’s license.
Friday night’s DUI checkpoint will take place in a mainly industrial area near the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge.
