Do Sobriety Checkpoints Really Decrease Drunk Driving?
You may have stumbled across (or driven through) a police barricade while leaving an outdoor festival or live sporting event. Called sobriety checkpoints, these barricades allow police officers to randomly stop as many or as few vehicles as they wish in an attempt to find and arrest individuals who are driving while intoxicated.
Although many law enforcement and activist groups have touted these sobriety checkpoints as instrumental in reducing the number of drunk driving fatalities, recent studies have led some to question their effectiveness: