Arrests in Decline At DWI Checkpoints

Albuquerque police sobriety checkpoints are netting fewer DWI arrests these days than in years past.

But that’s not a cause for celebration or an indicator that the city’s driving while intoxicated problem is lessening, said APD spokesman Robert Gibbs.

“It’s just technology, in general,” Gibbs said.

In the age of Twitter, Facebook and a booming app industry, late-night partiers are tipping their friends off about sobriety checkpoints, and users can download applications that plot checkpoints on a map.

“When a friend who just went through a checkpoint on Broadway and Central posts that on Facebook, all their friends know about it,” Gibbs said.

The number of nightly DWI arrests at checkpoints used to be around 30 three or four years ago, Gibbs said. These days, 15 arrests make for a “great night,” he said.

The department is also prohibited from moving the checkpoint after they’ve set one up, and checkpoints take about an hour to get running, Gibbs said.

“There’s no way you could stop people from using social media,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs pointed out that the department still makes “plenty” of DWI arrests through regular patrols.

As of Dec. 18, 136 people had died as a result of an alcohol-related crash in New Mexico this past year. In 2011, 117 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal