There people refused to give blood….did you mean Three?

I did, indeed, OfallonDude. Thank you for catching that.

This is down from the 22 arrests (I believe it was) the last time they did this. It is either a good sign or too much advance advertising. These things should not be giving advance notices, just pop them up!

The law says if the driver refuses “No test shall be given” so where do they get off taking blood? Those warrants are illegal. But the judges in St. Charles County are not generally known for protecting the rights of the citizens. They act as though they are an extension of the prosecutor’s office. Another case of infringing on our rights one small increment at a time. Ever since 9/11 people call themselves “patriots” and then speak in favor of restricting or removing our individual rights. They do not know that a patriot is one who stands up for the people in the face of government intrusion. A patriot is not a government sycophant it is a government irritant. Oh well this country is changing, not because of the obvious. It is changing because of the ignorance of the masses as to what it means to be an American. We are a country that exists because our forefathers did not accept government oppression. We now seem to be a country filled with people who are willing to let the government infringe on our rights because we want to get those …(fill in the blank) drunk drivers, meth users, abusers, cheats, thieves, arabs, …

I live in St. Charles and welcome these check points. I’m not in favor of big government in general but in certain situations feel that big brother’s intervention is necessary. When drivers take to the road after having consumed alcohol they need to be corrected by someone for their diregard for the safety of other…and unfortunately you nor I have the authority to make that correction. I’m astounded by the number of people who still regard drunk driving as a harmless little action.

mcgiv25. You are right the Implied Consent Law does say that. However the law does not forbid police from getting a search warrant. A law can not supercede the constitution.

How dare these cops infringe on my rights. If i want to drink and drive, and kill somebody and ruin innocent lives, why must they get involved? I thought the constitution was written for me to hide behind, so I can commit crimes, and get away with them because of some technical wording.

Why, with all this, I have half a mind to just not go out and drink and drive if this is the way they are going to treat us TRUE Americans who know the justice system through and through and know how to get away with stuff.

Wow, what a waste of resources. 982 vehicles stopped in 6 hours or about 164 cars hour. 8 arrests out of 982 or 0.81% “success” rate. Even worse, 0.4% were for DWI.

What a load of manure. These checkpoints have just shown how utterly wasteful and useless they are. So, because 0.4% of 982 drivers were drunk, we need to take that out on the other 99.6% of people that have done nothing wrong?!

I wonder how many cops were working this checkpoint and how much each was getting paid? Assuming 5 cops @ $30K/hour for six hours that would be = $900,000. So the government just spent $225,000 per DWI arrest at this checkpoint. And I’m being conservative with the pay and number of cops. Brilliant. No wonder our country is falling apart financially/economically when you have bozos running these inefficient means to curb drunk driving and the bozos that support them.

Get cops back on the road and looking for BAD drivers - drunk or not. Stop inconveniencing and violating the Rights of those who have DONE NOTHING WRONG! Yes, it is a violation of my Rights when I am stopped for no reason. See the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution.

stpetersdude…how did you arrive at your cost of $900,000? I think you are sadly mistaken. Last time I checked, no officer in the United States made $30k an hour! A more accurate assumption would be 8 officers at about $42k a year. This comes out to be about $22/hour per officer. The total cost of manpower would round out at only about $1,056 for the entire checkpoint. That is a difference of about $898,944!!

That cost is well worth it as far as I am concerned. You have to take into consideration that if one of those drunks had not got stopped and arrested, he or she could have struck and killed an innocent person or persons. I think anyone who thinks law enforcement checkpoints are a bad idea, needs to look at the bigger picture. Think about your spouse, child, mother, father or whomever is close to you in life and then take them away due to the actions of an intoxicated driver. Thats a true reality check.

My thanks to all law enforcement officers, (municipal, county or state), for all the hard work they do.

I had conversation about this very topic with a family gathering not too long ago. Interestingly enough, those who opposed checkpoints like this were the family members who routinely go to happy hour and drive home drunk.