Impaired driving and alcohol-related crashes constitute two of the nation’s leading health problems. These events result in more deaths each year than do total homicides.1 The impact is particularly severe among young people age 15 to 24, where impaired driving is the leading cause of death. Clearly, impaired driving and alcohol-related crashes constitute a major threat to the safety and well being of the public. The costs resulting from alcohol-related crashes should be recognized and weighed against the costs and inconveniences associated with efforts to reduce them. These guidelines have been designed to provide law enforcement agencies with a uniform and successful method to plan, operate, and evaluate low-staffing sobriety checkpoints. When implemented in conjunction with departmental policy and constraints imposed by State or local courts, low-staffing sobriety checkpoints provide an effective tool to combat the impaired driving problem. (Author/publisher)
Abstract