Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire DWI Checkpoint Loophole? Legit or get Tazed by Officers..?

[b][color:#3333FF]Link...![/color][/b]


ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Some attorneys say there’s a legal loophole that drivers can use to get through sobriety checkpoints and not speak with officers. It’s called the Fair DUI Flyer. Thanks to social media it’s gone viral.

Florida attorney Warren Redlich posted video on YouTube of him passing through a sobriety checkpoint with his self created flyer. A ziplock bag hangs out of his closed window displaying his driver’s license, insurance card and registration and his flyer that reads I will remain silent, comply with state law but am not opening my window.

At that checkpoint in Boca Raton, and another checkpoint in Miami that he posted video of, he is waived through without speaking a word to officers.

“Because the second you open your window they can say they smell alcohol,” said Warren Redlich.

We asked a St. Louis criminal attorney if it would work in Missouri.

“There’s a practical side and there’s a legal side. Is there a chance an officer is going to break your window out and pull you out of your car? It could happen. But, the legal answer is yes, it’s completely legal. When you roll into a DUI checkpoint you do not have to roll down your window, you do not have to speak you do not have to get out,” said Matt Fry an attorney with Rosenblum, Schwartz, Rogers & Glass.

DUI checkpoints became legal in 1990 under a ruling from the US Supreme Court. But, some lawyers say the supreme court never specified a driver’s actions once in that checkpoint.

“Do you have to put your hands up? Do you have to smile? Do you have to tell the officer who you are? They didn’t go that far. They balanced your constitutional rights, versus the states interest, in enforcing DWI’s,” says Fry.

Redlich now has Fair DUI Flyers tailored to laws in over 12 states online. His video tutorial on how to use it has been viewed on YouTube more 2.4 million times.

We tried to get interviews with a number of police departments including The Missouri Highway Patrol and St. Louis County Police.

St. Louis County police say they are aware of the YouTube video and are looking into it. They are talking to the prosecuting attorney’s office to find out what they can and cannot do if someone uses these flyers at one of their checkpoints.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving oppose the flyer, concerned that it’s encouraging intoxicated drivers to get away without consequences.

This is a flyer that a St. Louis attorney is distributing:

Ok....so they let me go on down the road and follow...stop me again for whatever....now I have to roll down window and speak to them and they are now pissed...who wins this argument?
And for the record, I abhor drunks and those who drive impaired by ANY substance...my wife has lived in abject pain due to an accident caused by 2 16 yr. old kids high on week 45 years ago.

Sorry, I'll just roll down the window and let them do what they must do...and hope some drunk tries this.

Judge Napolitano covered it last night. If you're directed into a sobriety checkpoint hand the cop your license and registration, keep your mouth shut. You aren't required to have a conversation with the cop.

Matthew D. Fry, attorney at law, is a funny guy.

He cites three cases in his flier - Hibel, Bostick and Dixon- none of which concern DUI/DWI checkpoints.

I've never understood how people get joy by poking a hornet nest with a stick.

People fought and bled for your constitutional rights. Cops hate the Constitution. they'd be so happy if it wasn't there. Kinda like the Nazi Germany days we seem to be slipping into.

(“Because the second you open your window they can say they smell alcohol,” said Warren Redlich.)
I thought alcohol was colorless and oderless?

Sigh. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to do it or even that it's a good idea.

That's a hell of a blanket statement.

I doubt anyone gets any joy from it, they just get tired of overreaching government intrusion into their lives and decide that this is where they want to make a stand. I won't be doing it because I'm not into making my life harder, but I'll admit that it does piss me off mightily to run into a roadblock every Friday or Saturday evening. I don't care that the supreme court has ruled them legal, they shouldn't be. The excuse of "if it saves just one life" doesn't wash, that reasoning is a slippery slope that will eventually lead to 24 hour a day government monitoring. When you wake up one day and find yourself living in a more modern version of the Soviet Union it'll be because we got there following the "if it saves just one life" road to hell.

If they let you go, why would they follow you and stop you again "for whatever"...other than just to be pricks...?

"And they are now pissed"...?

Why is that...? Is it because you didn't 'obey'...?

The scenario that you posted above, and the attitude of the cops that you posted above, is part of the problem that working class taxpayers have with the police. You didn't do anything wrong, yet they continued to harass you afterwards, and are now "pissed" at you...!

He found those checkpoints to be unconstitutional when he was a sitting judge.

And he was overruled. Not that I disagree with him in the result, don't know his rationale.

Still, coming from a family of cops (who love the Constitution) I don't want to give a guy a hard time just to prove a point to make myself feel good. Unless I'm driving drunk of course.

And yes, there are guys that take joy in giving cops a hard time. Remember the clips here with a guy hunting for near-the-border checkpoints just so he could video himself getting his jollies? WAY past making the point.

Your argument makes no sense. Although there may be a few people out there doing this, the Attorney has came up with this for average people who are being stopped exactly like the card said, "against their will".

The bottom line is, if you want to be a pussy, then you're free to do so. Don't condemn others who aren't like you.

And full of chit.

I don't condemn them. But I have no sympathy for them if a cop acts pissed off and gives them a hard time (within the law) back. In fact I'm cheering on the cops. If someone acts like an azzhole to me I'm happy to return the favor and I expect no less from cops. Cops with New England Patriots balls are worthless.

Pissing off people who are trying to serve your interests simply to gratify your ego is what makes no sense.

So was the cop that claimed my Swisher Sweet cigar smelt like weed and ripped into my car and took my gun. There's the 2nd and 4th right there. dum sheet found nothing

Dude...what you don't get is anybody with any brains at all can see these stops are unconstitutional and thus, illegal. They amount to unlawful detention and harassment at best and at worst could be as abduction. Most of us are just so brainwashed to do anything anybody in authority says that we'd probably zap people on command if you remember the old psychological studies...or if you don't. Think about the whole dynamics of an interaction with the cops. Even if you look on it as some courts have-as being legal because driving on roads you paid for is a "privilege", it is at best a hassle. You are driving down the road, possibly to an appointment with your doctor or a job interview or just to work. You aren't speeding because you don't want a ticket but you were delayed at home by some last minute crap with your wife or kids-so you are running a bit late. Up ahead is some damned DUI checkpoint. So after not only being slowed way down, here is some guy with a badge asking not only are you drunk or high but do you have any contraband or weapons in the car? But hey, you're supposed to be overjoyed to see the guy. Most cops I've dealt with don't want terse courtesy. They want ass-kissed. Despite all the cops on here and their advice to kiss ass, you never know how to deal with one. Some of them like fear. Others think that by showing deference you have something to hide so that sets them off even more. Most of them will up the ante unless you are a kiss-ass. The bottom line is that the whole expectancy is [bleep] up. Cops should expect to be strongly disliked for holding somebody up and asking a bunch of questions that no sane person would answer affirmatively to regardless of their sobriety or lack thereof and regardless of whether they are not carrying contraband or whatever it is the popo look for. I mean, you get held up by somebody for no good reason why wouldn't you be mad? "They're just doing their job." So were the guards at the Nazi Extermination Camps. Maybe that's overboard but this is the truth.

Now I don't agree with just setting up and stopping everyone for no reason (DWI checkpoint) But, it's much easier to just be nice comply and be on your way , UNLESS you've been drinking , which you shouldn't be doing. So little "tricks" like mentioned is just way to get away with something that's illegal anyway ?? So bitching that these stops are illeagle , but supporting the "tricks" to get away with something illeagle, seems odd to me

If you don't agree with DUI checkpoints then that should be your whole post. Only a moron would condone somebody drunk-driving or the like. If the popo catch those guys, that's great, but nobody wants to be inconvenienced, let alone harassed. My whole point is that if a cop wants love he should be a Priest or something. It's an interaction based on bullying if a cop wants people to be overjoyed that they're being pulled over. Those that act that way are simply ass-kissing or have too much time on their hands. The whole thing has gotten to the point of cow-towing. Your post advocates it. I don't think anybody here is supporting driving impaired.

Btw..."illeagle" is a non-word that seems to be describing a sick bird. The word for breaking the law is "illegal". You can pay me when you see me.