And many local police forces team up to set them up,
like the West Hills DUI Task Force.
“A group of municipalities band together and hold a
checkpoint in one specific municipality and pull over all of the motorists,
typically driving through the municipality that evening,” Michael Sherman, a
DUI defense attorney, told KDKA political editor Jon Delano on Monday.
That’s what happened to Molly Hlubin on her way home
from the old Star Lake, now Key Bank Pavilion, in 2013.
But in a 35-page opinion, the state Supreme Court
has tossed out her arrest and conviction.
Why?
Because the task force was never authorized by
elected officials.
Police officers from 16 municipalities were part of
this West Hills DUI Task Force along Steubenville Pike in Robinson, but none of
those 16 municipalities had elected officials voting and approving an ordinance
authorizing the task force.
And that, says the state Supreme Court, is a
problem.
Sherman who represented Hlubin says police cannot
set up multi-jurisdictional task forces to arrest people without elected
officials approving the mission.
“The elected officials didn’t have any input into
the decision,” said Sherman.
There are similar DUI task forces throughout the
region.
“We are passionate about getting impaired drivers
off the roads,” said Captain Douglas Ogden from the Moon Township Police who
ran the checkpoint that stopped Hlubin in Robinson. “Checkpoints are the most
effective way of contacting large numbers of impaired drivers and reinforcing
public awareness that we’re doing DUI enforcement.”
But this decision could impact other DUI cases now
being prosecuted.
“There was no authority to pull the motorist over in
the first place,” says Sherman.
Delano: “Do you think this affects hundreds of
people?”
Sherman: “It could be thousands.”
Sherman: “It could be thousands.”
If the DUI arrest was made as part of a recent
multi-community task force, it could be tossed out, says Sherman.
Of course, it may not take long before the
municipalities pass the appropriate local ordinances allowing the task forces.
After all, they have been effective.
The West Hills DUI Task Force alone has arrested 700
drunk or drugged drivers in a 15-year period.
In the meantime, watch for some local communities to
step up their own roving DUI patrols within their own municipal boundaries.
That’s perfectly legal.
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