Sen. Gilbert Cedillo
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 Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, attempted to significantly limit law enforcement's ability to impound the vehicles of unlicensed - but, in most cases, sober - drivers who are stopped at DUI checkpoints.
An investigation by California Watch early this year found the state's local governments and tow companies generated an estimated $40 million from checkpoint impounds in 2009. Many of the unlicensed drivers who lose their cars at checkpoints are illegal immigrants.
The Cedillo measure was touted as an anti-corruption provision since police officers in Bell, near Los Angeles, admitted last month that the city used revenue from impounds to pay top officials massive salaries. Bell police referred to checkpoints as "tow-a-thons," says former Sgt. James Corcoran, who investigated corruption issues in the city.
California law stipulates that if police choose to impound a car because the driver lacks a valid license, the car shall be held for 30 days. Between release and storage fees, these impounded cars can cost owners as much as $2,000 to retrieve. Motorists arrested on suspicion of drunk driving typically can pick up their cars the next day.
Cedillo's provision managed to complicate budget negotiations but, after Republican opposition, ended up removed from the final agreement.
"Some Republicans said the proposal could interfere with legitimate law-enforcement actions, and the bill failed to garner enough votes to pass," the Los Angeles Times reported. "So the Senate killed the entire $112 million transportation bill."
Xochitl Arellano, a Cedillo spokeswoman, said the provision would have required police at checkpoints to give unlicensed motorists a period of time to find a legal driver before seizing a car. (The San Francisco Police Department's policy gives such drivers 20 minutes to have their car driven away legally.)
The checkpoint impounds already face a legal challenge from the owners of impounded cars who argue the law violates the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. At question is whether the impounds are a constitutional administrative penalty for violating state law. The lawsuit, Salazar vs. Maywood, awaits oral arguments before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later this year.
Meanwhile, the checkpoint impounds continue. Reporting by La Opinión found that over the past year and a half, the Los Angeles Police Department impounded five cars for every one DUI arrest at a checkpoint. And the city doesn't appear inclined to change its practices.
"We live in a county where we follow the law, therefore, when not licensed there is a duty by law to confiscate it," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told La Opinión in September.
