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Facebook DWI checkpoint pages likely won’t impact arrests

On Behalf of | Aug 12, 2011 | Drunk Driving, Firm News |

Social media has many uses, from visiting with friends, to making business connections, to just killing time. And, of course, letting your buddies know where local DUI checkpoints are so they don’t get caught drinking and driving.

Facebook users in most states have recently been setting up a pages designed to reveal secret locations of DUI checkpoints. There are apparently only 12 states that don’t currently have such Facebook pages. The pages invite people to post DUI checkpoint locations and the location of police officers in general. Users frequently post information about where officers are stationed or parked through the day.

Sources pointed out that Facebook users are able to click whether the “like” the page, and that the pages are appreciated greatly. The DUI checkpoint page for Lake Charles, for instances, has around 2,900 “likes” and the Lafayette page has around 5,800. Baton Rouge has over 17,000 “likes.”

Partners for a Better America, a website that promotes the Facebook DUI pages, says that the pages are the “front lines in the battle for what is right.”

But according to local law enforcement officials, the DUI pages will not affect the way they go about operating checkpoints. Despite the use of social networking sites and apps designed to help people avoid the checkpoints, officers are still making plenty of DUI arrests. Checkpoints are, of course, not the only means officers use to deter drinking and driving. Overall, officers seem to be confident that the technology will not thwart enforcement of drunken driving laws.

Source: dplctv.com, “Social media sites reveal cops’ secret locations,” Brandon Richards, August 10, 2011.

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