More DUI Checkpoint Silliness

Today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette loudly confirmed my earlier post about the ineffectiveness of DUI checkpoints. Although the article's headline proclaimed "Task force nabs 10 during DUI checkpoint, patrols" the real story was, as usual, buried in the details. The article states that 968 vehicles passed through the checkpoint. Of that number, 17 were given field sobriety tests and 1 arrest was made.

Other charges were made for drug paraphernalia and underage drinking as well as assorted citations for vehicle code violations. I would like to take a moment to thank the Task force for making my point.

Let's run the numbers.

By my math, one arrest for sobriety violations out of 968 vehicles equals a success rate of 0.00103 %. Even the Pirates would be embarrassed by these kind of numbers. If we are a bit charitable and take into account that 10 drivers total were cited, we get a 0.0103 % "success" for a night's work of overtime, taxpayer expense, inconvenience to the public and invasion of their privacy. Keep in mind that the other 9 citations, were probably for such horrific crimes as not having current registrations, a busted headlight or other such transgressions against humanity.

Note how this number nicely corresponds with the 1 % success rate that most of these checkpoints produce as stated in my earlier post. Nice work fellas, you must be very proud of yourselves.