OTTUMWA, IOWA -- For Tuesday’s Facebook story of the day our fans voted on learning more about DUI checkpoints and why they are not conducted in Iowa.
Captain Curt Henderson has served on the Iowa State Patrol for more than 25 years. He says the state doesn’t conduct DUI checkpoints, however, they do conduct traffic checkpoints.
“These traffic checkpoints are done as a way of insuring the lighting from another vehicle is operating correctly as well as the license and registration of the driver,” Henderson said.
Many times the patrol will work with local police departments to run these traffic checkpoints that also check for safety belts being used.
Henderson says that if a driver is intoxicated at one of these points, they can and will be taken into custody.
“Those drivers are often detected during these types of operations. It’s also not uncommon for even narcotics violations to be discovered or warrants or arrests from the driver or an occupant of a vehicle during one of these operations.”