Is there a problem or not?

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
September 5, 2011

How's this for effectiveness? You decide... Maybe there really isn't a problem there. From www.shreveporttimes.com:

"The Caddo Parish (Louisiana) Sheriff's Office headed a multi-agency sobriety checkpoint Friday on Bert Kouns Industrial Loop in Southeast Shreveport.

"Authorities stopped 441 vehicles between 11 p.m. and 2:30 a.m.

"Caddo deputies charged two people with DWI, including a felony drug arrest. Deputies also issued 16 motor vehicle inspection violations, three open container violations, four seat belt violations and one expired registration violation.

"State troopers made two DWI arrests at the checkpoint and one DWI arrest on the saturation patrol."

Let's look at 441 vehicles stopped. Assuming that all different drivers were involved in the violations (not likely),

five people with DWI, including a felony drug arrest: 5/441 = 1.13%
16 motor vehicle inspection violations: 16/441 = 3.63%
three open container violations: 3/441 = 0.68%
four seat belt violation: 4/441= 0.91%
one expired registration violation: 1/441 = 0.23%.

That saturation effort was next to worthless. I suspect that the deputies and troopers would have had higher results on regular patrol! Were they using up a Federal grant?

Initial source: www.dwihitparade.com