Commentary:
By Bill Flores

While there appears to be plenty of support in the white community for continuing the program of DUI checkpoints by the Escondido Police, there should be a clarification of facts regarding these suspicionless stops by police in search of drunk and/or unlicensed drivers.

First, there is no evidence that checkpoints do anything to make streets safer. There is no study that has conclusively found that DUI checkpoints are responsible in any way for the reduction of alcohol-related accidents, hit-and-run accidents, or any other type of accident. Even though officials of Escondido say that the recent reduction in accidents “may have been the result of checkpoints”, it is more wishful thinking than anything else. This statement also ignores the fact that other cities have enjoyed a similar reduction without any checkpoints.

Second, one should take note of the fact that the recent data released by California’s Office of Traffic Safety shows that while the raw number of accidents has gone down in Escondido, the same holds true for other cities, some of which hold no checkpoints or fewer checkpoints than Escondido. In fact, Escondido’s ranking went from the third worst city in accidents to second worst. In other words, despite all the checkpoints held in Escondido, they did not seem to help lower the number of accidents as much as other similarly sized cities.

Third, while there are a few studies that have found that unlicensed drivers are disproportionately responsible for more accidents, none of the studies have taken into account a community having a large immigrant population. This is important because current studies have been limited to those unlicensed persons that did not take or could not pass the exam, have accumulated too many points against their license, or have had their license revoked by a judge.

Undocumented immigrants, unable to be licensed in California, are likely to drive in a manner that does not attract attention. It would not be surprising if a study were to find that (proportionately) undocumented drivers are responsible for fewer accidents than licensed drivers.

Fourth, it should be clearly understood that a hit-and-run is a crime that occurs after an accident. This crime takes place when one of the drivers flees. It is very difficult in most cases to prosecute these drivers because a positive identification must be made on who was driving at the time of the accident. But an effective way to curb the number of hit-and-run accidents is to reduce the overall number of accidents. Hit-and-run accidents tend not be planned crimes. People will run for a variety of reasons, but the most logical way of reducing this crime is to reduce the number of accidents that precedes the criminal conduct. There are many proven strategies for accident reduction, none of which involves checkpoints.

There is a much more effective and efficient way to catch DUI drivers. Saturation patrols have proven time and again that they produce more arrests utilizing fewer officers. Stopping 1400+ cars through a checkpoint manned by 12 or more officers (all being paid overtime) that might result in a few arrests twice a month for the last six years is a clear example of government ineffectiveness and wastefulness, and an unreasonable intrusion of our freedom.

Yet with the continuing cries from the Latino community to stop the abuse, it has only recently come to light that there is reason to suspect that the City of Escondido, through these abusive checkpoints and the impounding of thousands of vehicles, that Escondido has been unlawfully doctoring their records to secure millions of dollars…all on the backs of Latinos and poor people. The ACLU is calling for an independent audit of the city’s accounts to see exactly how the monies have been collected and spent. There are laws governing how money is collected and spent by cities and indications are that Escondido has violated these laws.

There is no other reason that Escondido continuously is the center of controversy concerning their treatment of Latinos and immigrants. Perhaps this is the real reason why this city has been underperforming for so long. Perhaps this is why so many businesses choose other cities to move to. It is no mistake that Latinos and others avoid visiting, shopping or moving to Escondido. It seems that there are more than enough good reasons. Most people want to avoid supporting a local government that has a well-established record of targeting Latinos with their checkpoints, with ICE agents stationed here, and with a city council hell bent on driving Latinos out.