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Alexander plans to do minimum, then use rest of funds for patrols
By Bob Dyer
Beacon Journal columnist
Published on Friday, Nov 30, 2007
Summit County's top cop got into a staredown with the state — and the state blinked.
Sheriff Drew Alexander is not a big fan of sobriety checkpoints. For one thing, he thinks they are much less effective than roving patrols.
But he likes the idea of Summit County getting a bundle of extra money to fight drunken driving, so he applied for a state grant to fund another Summit County OVI Task Force.
Unlike last year's task force, which ran 16 checkpoints in its final nine months, Alexander made a proposal to stage the minimum annual number required — four — and use the rest of the money to pay officers to cruise the streets and look for drivers who are exhibiting signs of impairment.
The state didn't like that. The state loves sobriety checkpoints — at least the people in the Governor's Highway Safety Office. Those folks have been passing along federal checkpoint money faster than
politicians handing out campaign literature.
In fiscal year 2006, GHSO task forces around the state stopped 68,656 drivers. In the first 11 months of this year, they stopped a whopping 117,858 drivers — a jump of 72 percent.
So the GHSO initially indicated that Summit would not get a grant because Alexander wouldn't run enough checkpoints. Higher-ups in state government apparently stepped in and prevailed.
Alexander expects to get about $175,000 to run the program through Oct. 1. Summit County would have gotten about $200,000, but the county is getting off to a late start because Reminderville Police Chief Jeff Buck, who had agreed to run the show for two years, unexpectedly quit after one.
The money goes primarily to off-duty cops from dozens of Summit County agencies who are paid time-and-a-half for their voluntary overtime.
Alexander was negotiating from a position of strength. With no other Summit law-enforcement agency stepping forward, the state could not have run checkpoints here without the various municipalities signing mutual aid agreements. Can you imagine Akron signing a mutual-aid pact with Reminderville?
According to the state's own stats, roving patrols are five times more effective than checkpoints, which have been catching less than one-third of one percent of the drivers stopped.
Puzzling hours
But if checkpoints are used, at least they should be set up during the hours when the most dangerous drunks are on the road. As we pointed out in an earlier column, Buck's group had banker's hours. While the greatest number of alcohol-related fatalities take place between midnight and 3 a.m., only two of his 16 checkpoints stayed open as late as 2 a.m. The bars don't even close until 2:30.
The sheriff said he will consult with his deputies and other law-enforcement agencies as to the precise schedules, but vowed that every checkpoint would encompass the hours between midnight and 3 a.m.
Summit's next checkpoint could be set up in time for the holiday drinking season. If the paperwork arrives from Columbus in time, Alexander said, he would like to have something in place by about Dec. 20.
For lots of folks, the issue is not timing but constitutionality. Many of us believe that sobriety checkpoints violate the Fourth Amendment — regardless of what a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1990.
On that controversial issue, you might expect Alexander to invoke another amendment — the Fifth. But when asked whether he thinks sobriety checkpoints violate the spirit of the Fourth Amendment, he answers quickly and succinctly.
''I do.''
If this guy isn't more careful, MADD is going to take him off its Christmas list.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
Get the full article here.
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