Question for our police officers - how many traffiic stops per arrest?

[M. Sage]

If you can convince the City Council/Mayor to can him. Or if you can convince him to quit.

Guys like him never quit, that's the problem.

 

[espy59lc]

The way I see it, if people are comfortable drinking and driving, they are going to drink and drive whether or not there are check points. The ppl that do it, just really don't give a shit. Personally I think Checkpoints are BS. I think they are more used for the Fear Factor of "EVERYBODY is going to get tested so you're better off not driving". But like I said, those people who drink and drive are going to do it regardless.

SA has those signs over the highways that say "Checkpoint weekend, NO REFUSAL". And it doesn't work.

 

[M. Sage]

One of my hobbies is "watching" people, trying to understand what motivates them.

I've come to the conclusion that negative reinforcement, that fear of a negative outcome, is not a good motivator. Like Jeff Cooper noted, most cops won't spend more time than they're required on a skill that could save their lives while crazy people like you and I will spend tons of our own money and time on that same skill so that we can win a shiny $5 trophy and bragging rights.

Hope of a positive outcome or positive reinforcement works a lot better.

 

[Texas42]

I've looked and can't find the evidence. Drunk driving fatality rates among the 38 states that allow them aren't really any different from the rest.

The Constitutional hurdle was decided by the Supreme Court. If you read their decision in the matter, they say flat-out that while the checkpoints violate your 4th Amendment rights, the Supremes are going to allow it for a few reasons, among them that states have "an interest" (WTF?) in preventing drunk driving and that DUI checkpoints have been proven to "work", even though they don't.

The checkpoint in the article my friend sent me did 19 sobriety tests, with one arrest and the article doesn't even say that arrest was for DUI. Let's assume it was. Less than 1% arrest rate, 18 wasted sobriety checks, how many police effectively off the streets for half their shift? The night before, the same department ran a checkpoint that had zero arrests out of over 500 cars. That puts their two day arrest/stop rate at under 0.1%.

They work? Don't think so.

This is an interesting article.
Little Evidence That Sobriety Checkpoints Curb Drunk-Driving Crashes

It talks about a review where it looked at many of the studies done. It points at that most showed a decrease in auto accidencts/fatalities, but that most were poorly constructed and the results are probably due to chance. It concludes there is currently not sufficient evidence that they work.

It would be interesting to figure out the cost per arrest to see how efficient our police system is. I'm sure it has probably been done, but I'd be interested to see where it is, and how it has changed in the last few decades or so.

 

[M. Sage]

This is an interesting article.
Little Evidence That Sobriety Checkpoints Curb Drunk-Driving Crashes

It talks about a review where it looked at many of the studies done. It points at that most showed a decrease in auto accidencts/fatalities, but that most were poorly constructed and the results are probably due to chance. It concludes there is currently not sufficient evidence that they work.

It would be interesting to figure out the cost per arrest to see how efficient our police system is. I'm sure it has probably been done, but I'd be interested to see where it is, and how it has changed in the last few decades or so.

Thanks!

“Federal research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that sobriety checkpoints reduce alcohol-related crashes and fatalities by up to 24 percent,” said Laura Dean-Mooney, MADD national president. “Checkpoints are one of the most effective tools we have to deter drunk driving.”

What, the same CDC that got spanked for saying that statistics proved that second hand smoke increased incidence of disease.... when the "increase" was less than one percent, well under margin of error? That CDC?