Visalia Criminal Defense Law Blog

Even if you are 100 percent sober, there's something nerve-racking about pulling up to a DUI checkpoint. Of course, if you have had a drink in the recent past, your anxiety level will go through the roof.

The more time you spend on the road, the greater chance there is that you will eventually run into a DUI checkpoint. If you're unable to avoid a checkpoint, here are a few things you should expect:

• You have to stop your vehicle. One time after the next, courts have come to the conclusion that these checkpoints are legal.
• You have the option to turn around as opposed to going through the checkpoint. Of course, an officer can stop your vehicle if you make an illegal maneuver or appear suspicious.
• A search at a DUI checkpoint does not always happen. Instead, searches must be reasonable. In most cases, the stop is nothing more than a conversation and potentially the request for your license and registration. If you appear to be under the influence, you may be asked to perform a field sobriety test.

The broken windows theory essentially says that crime is more likely in an area that has been neglected. For instance, if the windows have been smashed out of a number of homes in a neighborhood, people in the area then feel emboldened to commit more serious crimes than pure vandalism.

This criminal theory has shaped the way police work is done, and it extends beyond windows. It applies to many minor crimes, like selling individual cigarettes or not paying transit fares or even breaking minor drug laws.

The "Death Diaries," or a project looking at what drugs were most responsible for patient deaths in 2013, has shown a serious problem in California. Amidst the opioid epidemic, this project aimed to find out which drugs caused the most problems to help reduce the ability of individuals to obtain them and to identify how they're obtaining them.

Some of the most obvious issues involved patients who were doctor shopping, those who were mixing their medications and doctors who weren't looking at their patients' medical drug history. After doing the research, the project sent out mail to the physicians of those who had died from overdoses. The goal was to see if the doctors would change how they prescribed medications if they knew their patients had passed away from drugs. It was discovered during the project that many of the doctors never knew their patients had passed away.

It's logical that when traffic increases, so do traffic accidents. Other factors like inclement weather conditions and rush hour traffic can also affect the collision rate. But perhaps the single greatest contributor to highway accidents is drunk driving.

Statistics provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicate that in one five-year period, approximately 36 people died every day here in America in collisions involving a drunken driver. The winter holidays, a time when alcohol consumption goes through the roof, are peak times for drunk driving collisions, with the daily average jumping to 45 over Christmas. The rate then further skyrockets to 54 fatalities per day during the New Year's holidays.