On July 21, 2008, activists from the San Rafael community gathered in front of the city council to demand a public hearing examining the fairness of DUI checkpoints in the city. Even though the issue was not on the agenda, both opponents and supporters gathered to debate DUI checkpoints during open time. Debate centered on the Canal neighborhood checkpoint, which some community members believe was rife with ethnic profiling and intended to locate unlicensed illegal immigrants. The city council denied the request for a hearing, noting that the community should voice their concerns to the police department.

One week before, on June 13, 2008, officers with the San Rafael Police Department arrested forty-seven drivers at a checkpoint held at East Francisco Boulevard and Grand Avenue in the Canal neighborhood. The checkpoint was conducted from 6pm to 11pm and then moved to Irwin Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenue until 1:30am. Four of the forty-seven arrested drivers were booked for driving under the influence, while thirty-nine were arrested for driving without a license.

The United States Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld sobriety checkpoints as constitutional. According to the 1987 California Supreme Court decision in Ingersoll v. Palmer (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1321, several procedures must be followed for a checkpoint to meet constitutional requirements.

In response to critics who said that the placement of the checkpoint suggested that law enforcement was targeting illegal immigrants, the San Rafael Police Department maintained that checkpoint locations are chosen based on statistics regarding accidents, drunk driving arrests, traffic incidents, and officer and motorist safety in locations around the city. The San Rafael Police Department and supporters of checkpoints argue that they keep drunk drivers off the road and protect the community. Fourteen checkpoints have been conducted in San Rafael since 2005.

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Sandra Woodall, a current district attorney investigator and former law enforcement officer with the San Jose Police Department, is accused of speeding and colliding with two vehicles while driving under the influence on March 25, 2008 in San Jose. She appeared in court this Thursday July 10, 2008 to face felony DUI charges. The collision in which Woodall was involved sent all three drivers to the hospital with minor injuries.

Responding to the scene of the accident, four San Jose Police Department officers wrote in their reports that Woodall did not smell of alcohol. However, witnesses including hospital staff and paramedics have since told investigators that Woodall appeared to be drunk. According to court documents, a paramedic said that Woodall smelled of alcohol, asked the same questions repeatedly, and seemed unable to concentrate. Nonetheless, the responding officers never charged her with driving under the influence.

The attorney general subsequently charged Woodall with felony DUI, stepping in to say that Woodall had been drunk, belligerent, and the cause of the collision. Law enforcement failed to test Woodall for her blood or breath alcohol level. The victims injured in the accident said that they believe Woodall was treated preferentially by the officers. Not only was she herself a law enforcement officer at the time of the accident, but her husband is also a sergeant in the department.

The San Jose Police Department is conducting an internal investigation into the conduct of the officers that responded to the collision in order to determine whether they should lose their badges or be disciplined. The two officers being closely investigated are on leave with pay.

The prosecution faces a difficult task of proving Woodall's intoxication without any chemical test results or field sobriety tests. Woodall's case is set for another hearing on August 28, 2008.

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The Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has committed to fund a new California Highway Patrol (CHP) campaign against drunk driving during the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

This new grant follows the recent conclusion of another grant-funded campaign, the CHP's "Statewide Driving under the Influence (DUI) Reduction Effort." The OTS awarded the CHP five million dollars to deploy officers for additional overtime hours on "DUI Roving Patrol" with the purpose of identifying and arresting drunk drivers. Over the span of the campaign, the CHP expended its personnel for 40,545 overtime hours.

The campaign ultimately involved the administration of 233 DUI Checkpoints and 66 DUI Task Force Operations, which resulted in a total of 2,971 DUI arrests statewide. In a press release on June 3, 2008, the CHP reported that their efforts were "paying off," as the goal of the campaign was "to reduce the number of people killed and injured in alcohol-involved collisions." The CHP did not provide any statistics regarding a reduction in the number of DUI related injuries and/or deaths since the commencement of the campaign.

The CHP will use the new 2008-2009 fiscal year grant to fund a "similar anti-DUI campaign."

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In the Bay Area alone, 125 law enforcement agencies teamed up to crack down on drunk driving during this year's Fourth of July weekend. These law enforcement agencies report a combined 320 DUI arrests between Friday July 4, 2008 and Sunday July 6, 2008.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) alone arrested 237 Bay Area drivers for drunk driving. According to CHP reports, 36 traffic related fatalities occurred last weekend. None of these fatalities were contributed to the fault of drunk drivers.

Bay Area law enforcement agencies maintain that they will continue their heightened efforts to arrest drunk drivers throughout this week and into the upcoming weekend. An increased number of CHP officers will be on patrol during this time period.

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The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office is known for its "get tough" policy of prosecuting regular citizens for driving under the influence. Despite this fact, the Law Office of Robert Tayac was able to obtain a victory this Monday in the Santa Clara Superior Court on the behalf of their client, "S.M," who was arrested in January 2008 by the Palo Alto Police Department. While S.M.'s breath alcohol test indicated a blood alcohol content of .07 percent (the legal limit in California is .08 percent), the Palo Alto District Attorney's office prosecuted S.M. for violation of Vehicle Code section 23152(a), driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Nonetheless, Attorney Robert Tayac was able to negotiate a settlement to reduce the charge to reckless driving, pursuant to section 23103.5 of the Vehicle Code. As such, all driving under the influence charges were dropped against S.M.

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