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Check Points and Vehicle Stops
Vehicle Stops
A vehicle stop is one of the most common ways that police are able to interact with citizens. In Pennsylvania, a vehicle stop needs to be based upon a violation of Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code. The Code includes violations for failing to stay on the right side of the roadway and failing to stay within lane of travel. This means that presently, police contact may be initiated for swerving momentarily out of your lane of travel over a given period of time. Other common violations are turn signal violations and violations for rolling stops. Once the police officer observes the violation, they can stop you. After you have been stopped, the police are then in a position to observe your behavior, and if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that you are Driving Under the Influence, then they may request that you submit to a Blood Alcohol Content test of their choice.
| After the stop, the only question that remains for a Court when determining if the stop was lawful will be whether or not the officer can articulate reasonable grounds to suspect a violation of the Motor Vehicle Code. While challenging vehicle stops has been made more difficult by recent decisions from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, this is still an area that is worth consulting with us about. |
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Check Points
Occasionally, the police use check points to screen for people who may be driving under the influence or to check for seat belt compliance. Substantial compliance with constitutional standards must be met for DUI Checkpoints, the standards include:
1. Requiring that police discretion is removed from the decision to stop vehicles. Rather, the decision to hold a road block, its location and timing must be coordinated administratively.
2. The road block should be on a likely route used by intoxicated drivers and at a time when intoxicated drivers are likely to use the route.
3. The decision of which vehicles to stop must be made in accordance with administrative standards.
We will be happy to review these with you, and assess how they apply during the course of your case.