Sobriety checkpoints bill on way to House
April 1, 2009
A bill allowing local law enforcement officers to set up sobriety checkpoints in the most populous cities and counties in Texas is on its way to the House after gaining final Senate approval on Tuesday. The measure by Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, restores a practice that was banned in Texas 15 years ago because the state at that time had no standards on how to conduct the checkpoints.
Written by Terrence Stutz, The Dallas Morning News
A bill allowing local law enforcement officers to set up sobriety checkpoints in the most populous cities and counties in Texas is on its way to the House after gaining final Senate approval on Tuesday. The measure by Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, restores a practice that was banned in Texas 15 years ago because the state at that time had no standards on how to conduct the checkpoints.
To fix that, Carona's bill lays out several restrictions for checkpoints, including that they could not be maintained for more than four hours and that they could not be set up in a specific area more than once a year. Carona said studies support the effectiveness of sobriety checkpoints in deterring drunk driving and noted that federal highway experts have estimated that 300 lives a year could be saved in Texas with use of checkpoints. The bill applies only to cities over 500,000 people and to 15 counties with over 250,000.
The Senate vote was 20-11.
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