POLICE FIND EXCUSE TO SEARCH CARS

I was dismayed to read in Ginny MacDonald's Driver's Side column that
Alabama's law enforcement agencies are embarking on another "Click It Or
Ticket" campaign. While increasing seat-belt use is a noble goal, the use
of police checkpoints and roadblocks to achieve it is heavy-handed at best
and unconstitutional at worst. These tactics belong in bad movies about
Eastern Bloc dictatorships, not the highways of Alabama.

This campaign is really just a cover for unjustified searches of vehicles.
I was not surprised to read in The News after the last campaign that the
arrests and citations issued at these checkpoints for drugs, alcohol,
firearms, expired licenses, etc., greatly outnumbered those issued for
seat-belt law violations.

If the Department of Public Safety called its campaign "Stop 'Em and Search
'Em" at least I could respect its honesty.

Blair A. Stephenson

Hueytown