Sunday, October 01, 2006
Christiansburg's chubby checkpoints
Christian Trejbal
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I am starting to come around on the whole wasteful-spending-in-government thing. I found some fat in government right here on the streets of the New River Valley.
Driving back to the office from lunch recently, I ran into backed-up traffic on Cambria Street in Christiansburg. Up ahead, a half dozen police officers with as many patrol vehicles were stopping motorists and talking to drivers.
My journalist sense tingled. Maybe there was another manhunt.
Inching forward, my car finally reached an officer.
"May I see your license, please?"
"What is this regarding, officer?"
"We're checking everyone's driver's licenses."
"Why?"
"It's a traffic safety check. We make sure everyone has a license."
Criminy. It wasn't a manhunt. It was checkpoint, straight out of the Cold War with soldiers stationed on a road near the East German border. They might as well have put on their thick accents and commanded, "Achtung! Papers, please."
Useless journalist sense.
The officer was a model of politeness, answering all the questions from the annoying journalist. His hand never once drifted to his gun, and he even reminded me that I had 30 days to change my address with the Department of Motor Vehicles since my move to the New River Valley. I did it last week.
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Well-executed nonsense is still nonsense. Does Christiansburg really have that much cash laying around that it can afford to run silly checkpoints?
Sure, the law requires motorists to carry their licenses, and police do not make the law. But they do get to prioritize. In the sea of public safety, this one is a bottom-feeder. It's a tack-on offense for someone who runs a red light.
When I returned to the office, I asked around about Checkpoint Cambria. The reporters and editors who have lived here for a while were nonplussed: "Yeah, they do that around here."
One reporter said she got a ticket at a checkpoint a while back for not having her license. She had to go to court. The judge tore up the ticket when she produced her license.
It's fat in government. Police have more money than they apparently need and a willingness to clog up an overburdened judicial system with inane cases.
Christiansburg Police Capt. Barry O'Rourke views it differently. "I think it's beneficial," he said. "They're productive. It's a deterrent. It lets folks know that we are out there."
At the stops, police check more than just licenses, he elaborated. They make sure people are wearing their seat belts, young children are properly in safety seats and inspection tags and registration are up-to-date.
Police cruisers on patrol let people know that law enforcement is watching the roads, too, and they might actually catch someone endangering the public, or at least a speeder.
The DMV funnels dollars from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to localities for many of the checkpoints -- $2.7 million statewide in the last fiscal year. That cash covers overtime for off-duty officers and some equipment.
It is hard to fault Christiansburg police for taking advantage of a state/federal grant program, but the town goes further. If a patrol shift has some spare manpower, O'Rourke explained, they might set up a checkpoint for a few hours.
"We do it quite often," he said. They operate two or more per month at various places around town, depending on the weather.
Spare manpower?! The next time police cry about needing more money to keep the community safe, taxpayers should ask what happened to the checkpoint cops.
Christiansburg far exceeds other nearby localities' devotion to delaying drivers.
Blacksburg operates two or three per year. Montgomery County does them rarely, usually only when they have received complaints on a particular road. Both rely primarily on the state/federal grants.
Last week, the leadership in the Virginia House of Delegates again trotted out its claim that the state is flush with cash to pay for roads. There is no need for new taxes, they said.
Apparently not. They might persuade DMV and the feds to turn over that $2.7 million for something useful. It's not much, but it would be a first dollop of fat toward the billions needed for transportation infrastructure.
In the meantime, don't hit the roads without your license. You never know when you will have to produce your papers at Checkpoint Cambria.
Christian Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
