February 17, 2012, 12:05 AM
California traffic safety officials have followed the few rules that exist for overseeing sobriety checkpoints set up by hundreds of police departments, the state auditor reported yesterday. No federal law or state statute governs what happens at the roadway operations, according to the...
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October 11, 2011, 12:05 AM
The economics of California’s sobriety checkpoints will change next year, as Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation intended to reduce the number of cars police impound at roadway operations. More than 100 city and county law enforcement agencies in the state run checkpoints. The operations...
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September 14, 2011, 12:05 AM
Bills written to shield illegal immigrants in California from losing their cars to impound have been stalled, vetoed or voted down for years. In the past two weeks, however, two such pieces of legislation reached the governor’s desk with minimal political scuffling. Sobriety...
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August 17, 2011, 12:05 AM
As California’s attorney general, Jerry Brown was the first to crack down on questionable car impounds at checkpoints. Soon, it appears, the governor also will get the last word on the legality of police seizing vehicles from sober but unlicensed motorists at roadway operations intended...
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July 5, 2011, 12:05 AM
Debate over impounds at California’s sobriety checkpoints has focused on immigration, civil rights and government corruption for much of the past year. Few of the arguments have dealt with traffic safety. That is likely to change today, when the state Senate Public Safety Committee...
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June 1, 2011, 12:05 AM
Over the past year, a half dozen California cities that impounded hundreds of cars driven by unlicensed drivers stopped at sobriety checkpoints have moved to end the lucrative practice. Law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles and Oakland police departments, began providing...
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April 25, 2011, 12:05 AM
Montebello’s financial story, though just starting to publicly unfold, seems to be following a narrative similar to that of two other cities east of Los Angeles: Bell and Maywood. It’s short on cash and has pulled restricted redevelopment dollars into the general fund. Further,...
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December 13, 2010, 12:05 AM
The San Jose Police Department last week joined a small, but growing, list of law enforcement agencies moving to change their policies to avoid impounding unlicensed drivers’ cars for a month. California law allows police to seize cars driven by motorists with a suspended or revoked...
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December 3, 2010, 12:05 AM
Along with lights displays, sales on electronics and good cheer, in California the winter holidays bring a slew of sobriety checkpoints. The California Office of Traffic Safety is wrapping up its “year of the checkpoint,” during which it funded a record 2,500 such operations....
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October 12, 2010, 12:05 AM
For one night last week, the entire state budget became tangled in the complex legal and political issues surrounding sobriety checkpoints – and the financial strain they put on California's unlicensed drivers. During final budget negotiations Thursday, state Sen. Gilbert...
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August 6, 2010, 12:05 AM
Keeping the streets safe is a central responsibility for any local police force. The Santa Barbara Police Department appears to have decided that unlicensed drivers are their top roadway threat. A recent study of the department’s traffic enforcement data found that Santa Barbara’s...
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