Return of the Roadblock

Despite tricky legalities, police are netting tidy hauls

Engines and tempers ran hot as traffic backed up four miles on Interstate 40 near Forrest City, Ark. Most drivers suspected an accident, but those with CB radios knew better. Up ahead nearly 50 police officers and Murfy, a pot-sniffing dog, were checking out cars in one of the largest roadblocks in recent years. After 22 hours, the team had nailed 489 people on offenses ranging from expired licenses to possession of marijuana. St. Francis County expects to collect $20,000 in fines, and Sheriff Sam Ashworth pronounced the roadblock just about the best thing since sirens for scaring troublemakers out of his county.

Roadblocks are not new, but lately they seem to be coming back into vogue. Their goals vary. Police in Montgomery County, Md., have been running daily blocks to snare drunken drivers. Last month a federal task force set up a continuing checkpoint on U.S. 1, the only road leading out of the Florida Keys, primarily to detect illegal aliens. Says Lawrence Sherman, director of research for the Police Foundation: "It's a technique with a great deal of potential."

Including the potential to enrage the public. During the early stages of the U.S. 1 block, traffic was strung out for up to 19 miles, and resorts in the Keys began reporting a drop of as much as 40% in tourist business. Key West symbolically seceded from the Union, and local officials begged Washington to call a halt. The only change, however, has been less strict checking to eliminate most of the delay.

That was little comfort for steaming drivers. As Richard Emery, staff counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union, points out, "In this society, privacy in the car is treasured."

That sense of privacy may be more instinctual than constitutional. In 1979 the Supreme Court ruled that a single car could not be pulled over without cause but said that roadblocks where everybody is stopped for a license check are legal. Justice Harry Blackmun suggested that it would also be nondiscriminatory and thus permissible to stop, say, every tenth vehicle. Lower courts have been uncertain, however, whether that decision allowed roadblocks aimed at drunken drivers.

Once a car is stopped, what may police legally do? They certainly can ask to see a license and registration. In some circumstances near a border, the Supreme Court has said, immigration officers may check the identification papers of everyone in the car. And if a driver reaches below the seat or makes a quick gesture, the officer has the right to order him out of the car to submit to a weapons search.

"But to continue," says Kent Joscelyn, a transportation specialist at the University of Michigan, "there must be reasonable grounds to believe a crime was committed." Experts agree that if drugs or other contraband are in plain view, police may seize it and then look further. In cases of suspected drunken driving, some officials believe that the smell of alcohol on a driver's breath justifies a Breathalyzer test. Of course, police can simply ask questions. Everyone has a constitutional right not to answer. But when officers at the Arkansas roadblock inquired whether anyone had drugs, a few honest travelers admitted that they did. They were busted.

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