On November 26th, law enforcement officers started a “DWI Enforcement and Awareness Campaign”. The campaign was timed to start the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving as the State Patrol claims it is one of the “biggest drunk driving days” of the year.
The campaign is a state-wide multi-agency effort and it will run every weekend through December 27, 2014. Nearly 400 law enforcement agencies are involved in the DWI campaign.
In 2013, there were 25,719 DWI arrests in Minnesota and 81 DWI deaths. The campaign is aimed at reducing the DWI death rate for 2014.
In 1995, I was the attorney who convinced the Minnesota Supreme Court to declare the use of “drunk-driving roadblocks” (AKA “sobriety checkpoints”) unconstitutional. As a result, the law enforcement agencies involved in the current DWI campaign will be conducting “saturation patrols” where additional officers are on the look-out to stop motorists for any perceived offense, such as “weaving within the lane” or touching a fog line.
This leads to the interesting question as to whether these saturation patrols are constitutional. In other words, the police are going to stop motorists at 2 am for conduct they would never consider stopping the motorist for at 2 pm. So why should a person’s right to be left alone under the 4th Amendment be dependent upon the time of day? I do not believe that your constitutional rights are time-dependent and if you or a loved one have been arrested for a Minnesota DWI, please call Minneapolis DWI Lawyer F. T. Sessoms at (612) 344-1505 today!