Sobriety Checkpoints Make Their Way Through Clay County
During the month of September, South Dakota Highway Patrol implemented a number of sobriety checkpoints throughout the state including Clay County. These checkpoints were a part of an ongoing statewide initiative to reduce drunk driving through increased mandatory checkpoints. Sobriety checkpoints also operated in neighboring Lincoln County and Minnehaha County.
A group of 13-15 counties are selected each month for random sobriety checkpoints. If stopped, drivers are expected to provide their drivers license, vehicle registration and insurance. Police may also request further tests such as a breathalyzer test if they believe an individual to be intoxicated.
If a driver arrives at a checkpoint, but does not wish to pass through, the driver may turn around, but law enforcement may still stop them if they break traffic laws or the officer suspects that the driver is intoxicated.
Similarly, If a driver continues through to the checkpoint, they are only required to provide their license, registration and insurance. If an officer asks a driver to take a breathalyzer, they may refuse, but their license will be automatically suspended and it may be used against said driver in court.
The checkpoints are part of a long running program with the goal of deterring drunk driving and other traffic violations. South Dakota has been trying to crack down on Drunk Driving, partially due to the impact it causes annually during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. In the annual Crime in South Dakota Report, Attorney General Marty Jackley reported an increase of DUI arrests.
“DUI arrests were at 5,493 in 2024, up from 5,412 in 2023, said Jackley.”
The constitutionality of sobriety checkpoints has regularly been a source of debate. Under the Fourth Amendment, citizens are guaranteed protection from unreasonable search and seizures. Usually this means that a law enforcement officer needs to have reasonable suspicion to stop a driver. The detractors of checkpoints argue that the authority to stop any car at a checkpoint with no prior suspicion violates the rights protected under the Fourth Amendment.
In 1990, the supreme court ruled in favor of sobriety checks deciding that the benefits and effectiveness of stopping drunk drivers at a checkpoint outweighed the inconveniences for drivers. Justice Rehnquist would write the following in the court’s opinion.
“This case poses the question whether a State’s use of highway sobriety checkpoints violates the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. We hold that it does not and therefore reverse the contrary holding of the Court of Appeals of Michigan, said Rehnquist.”
In the end, the court left the decision to use checkpoints up to the states. For now, checkpoints are still operated in 48 states, including South Dakota.
