If you’re one of the nearly 700,000 Tennesseans expected to get behind the wheel this holiday weekend, be advised — law enforcement will be on high alert.
The Chattanooga area is no exception, as the Chattanooga Police Department, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and other municipal law enforcement agencies all plan to set up sobriety checkpoints throughout the weekend. That’s bad news to more than just those who would try to skirt the law.
However, in a recent opinion piece sent to the Times Free Press, Sarah Longwell, managing director of the American Beverage Institute, called the checkpoints a waste of resources.
“While these checkpoints cause traffic jams and frustrate drivers, they rarely catch motorists who have had too much to drink before getting behind the wheel,” Longwell wrote. “It might seem counter-intuitive, but sobriety checkpoints are actually a lousy way to crack down on drunk driving.”
Longwell cited a litany of reasons in her argument, including low statistics of actually nabbing drunken drivers at checkpoints, as well as the high cost of DUI checkpoints versus cheaper alternatives that net better results, such as increased patrol saturation. Longwell also mentioned that checkpoint locations are known well in advance, and said advances in technology have compounded the problem.