Editor, Times-Union: According to our esteemed newspaper, I see the board received $25,000 in funding for a DUI task force Indiana enforcement grant (from state taxes). The task force will pay officers overtime for selective patrols and sobriety checkpoints of impaired and dangerous driving.
My opinion is that no special checkpoints should be needed especially when they are technically unconstitutional. What citizens don’t seem to understand is that checkpoints are the tip of the iceberg: While they talk about DUIs, it’s a convenient way to look you over, look into your car and Lord have mercy if you might have had three beers. This is simply the government getting you used to even more stringent police state activity. It’s all about revenue raising for cities that are going broke. Justice should rely on observed behavior and nothing more.
The board also approved $54,000 in operation pull over grant funding to pay officers overtime to enforce Indiana laws for those not wearing their seat belts, impaired driving and child restraint violations.
Are you citizens so foolish as to believe most of what the system is telling you? Perhaps the church ladies do but the working class isn’t buying it. Those that are hammered the most are the poorest of the working class.
Also, $63,000 for more overtime for investigating and prosecuting fatality and serious bodily injury traffic accidents that involve alcohol drugs or reckless driving. That’s $142,000 for above and beyond regular pay.
I knew several cops in California and told them if you want to catch the biggest numbers of DUI and drug users, simply put a check point at the entrance to the police parking lot. I used to have a drink now and then with a local detective in Fallbrook, Calif. I have seen him so drunk he could barely get into his car. When stopped he simply flashed his badge and I.D. and his buddies let him drive on.
