Last night I came across an article by The Newspaper, highlighting a story out of Summit County, Ohio regarding sobriety checkpoints and a local county sheriff.
In a breath of fresh air, Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander admitted sobriety checkpoints are far less effective at removing drunk drivers from the road than traditional policing methods that rely upon reasonable suspicion to justify a stop. The Sheriff then went on to state he believes such suspicionless checkpoints are a violation of the spirit of the 4th Amendment.
Just when I was starting to think Alexander was a sheriff with integrity however, I discovered he wasn’t nearly so willing to put his convictions into practice when federal bribes amounting to $175,000 were on the line.
Instead, Alexander applied for and received a federal grant from the so-called National Highway Traffic Safety Administration through Ohio’s Governor’s Highway Safety Office (GHSO). Although Alexander wrangled with the state regarding how many ineffective and unconstitutional checkpoints his department would have to conduct in order to receive the money, he eventually accepted the bribe on the condition he would operate no less than four such checkpoints over the course of the upcoming year.
Continue reading “Ohio Sheriff Accepts Bribe to Conduct Illegal Checkpoints”