Missouri
Sheriff
Overrules
Supreme
Court
on
Roadblocks
12/8/00
The Supreme Court ruled less than two weeks ago that police could not use random, suspicionless searches of motorists' vehicles as a tactic in the war on drugs. A Missouri sheriff so fond of drug-hunting roadblocks that he's been nicknamed "The Sheriff of I-44" thinks he's found a way around such constitutional impediments to his lucrative pursuit of drug law violators. According to reports in the Southeast Missourian (Cape Girardeau) and Kansas City Star, the Phelps County Sheriff's Department in Rolla will continue the checkpoints. Sheriff Don Blankenship told the local newspaper after the ruling that it "shouldn't affect us because we have a different type of checkpoint" and that the US Attorney's office agreed with him. In comments to the Star's Karen Dillon, Terri Dougherty, executive assistant to Eastern District of Missouri US Attorney Audrey Fleissig confirmed that her office had given Blankenship the okay to continue. Sheriff Blankenship and other Missouri law enforcement officials argue that their roadblocks created reasonable suspicion through the use of deception. They would typically set up a sign warning of a drug checkpoint ahead, but allow motorists the opportunity to exit between the sign and the supposed checkpoint. The checkpoint was actually at the bottom of the off-ramp. Under the police logic, drivers who take the exit, especially those with out of state plates, are deemed to have created reasonable suspicion to be stopped and possibly searched. The American Civil Liberties Union branch in St. Louis begs to differ. "If the purpose is to find evidence of a crime then it is unconstitutional," ACLU of Eastern Missouri head Matt LeMieux told the Star. "It is quite clear that the purpose of the Phelps County checkpoints is to find criminal evidence -- drugs in this case." "We certainly intend to share with the sheriff our view of how the Supreme Court decision applies to his checkpoints and encourage him to stop them," said LeMieux. "Even if the Justice Department gave him the go-ahead, I don't think it changes the fact that the practice appears to conflict with the US Supreme Court ruling." Other Missouri law enforcement agencies have reacted more compliantly to the Supreme Court ruling. The state Highway Patrol has ended its use of checkpoints, the Missouri Police Chiefs Association has advised police to stop using them, and the Missouri Sheriffs Association notified sheriffs statewide about the ruling. Sheriffs Association head James L. Vermeersch told the Star he wants to talk to Blankenship about his decision. He's not alone. The Phelps County Commission wanted to discuss the court ruling with him at their meeting last Thursday, but he didn't show up. Blankenship came under fire in the recent election campaign for spending too much time conducting drug checkpoints on Interstate 44 instead of patrolling the county. Critics accused him of running the checkpoints because the department profited from seizures from drug suspects. This year, the department has taken in $114,000 as of October, the Star reported. While under Missouri law, such funds are dedicated for public education, little has made it into county coffers in the last two years, the county treasurer reported. Instead, under a federal asset forfeiture sleight-of-hand, the department turns the money over to the DEA, which in turn sends roughly 80% back to the arresting agency. Sheriff Blankenship used some of the proceeds to buy gun locks, which opponents accused him of giving away as a campaign device, and another $221 went for 500 copies of a pamphlet called "Your Friend the Sheriff." Another $358 bought a thousand "Help Fight Crime" pens. Other seized funds were used to pay the salaries of police who participated in the roadblocks, who were supposedly "volunteers," the Star reported. And, like the New Jersey racial profiling scandal, in the background lurks the DEA. That agency was so taken with Phelps County's techniques that it gave the department's checkpoint team a national award. One Phelps County deputy now spends three weeks each year teaching his borderline technique to DEA agents and police around the nation.
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