Labor Day DUI checkpoints in Georgia are expected statewide as millions travel for the final summer weekend—here’s what drivers need to know.
According to one report, 75 percent of Americans plan to take their longest road trip of summer 2025 on, or immediately prior to, Labor Day Weekend. Most of these travelers will probably encounter at least one DUI roadblock.
After considerable back and forth, the Supreme Court permanently legalized DUI checkpoints in 1995, as long as these checkpoints adhere to strict rules. Most state legislature in most red states, such as Georgia, almost immediately passed enabling legislation authorizing DUI checkpoints according to the Supreme Court’s framework.
Considering expenses like officer overtime, DUI roadblocks are almost cost prohibitive. Therefore, most law enforcement agencies only set up checkpoints on Labor Day, Memorial Day, and other holidays associated with drinking and driving.
If a roadblock violates even one rule, no matter how slightly, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer can get the stop thrown out of court. If the stop was illegal, any subsequent actions, such as a DUI investigation and arrest, are fruit from a poisonous tree and therefore inadmissible in court. If a judge rules that way, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer has a clear upper hand during pretrial settlement negotiations.
Supervising Law Enforcement Planning
For much of this post, we’ll compare DUI checkpoints with speed traps. Contrary to popular myth, a DUI roadblock is significantly different from a speed trap.
These differences begin with supervisor authorization. Officers may hide behind billboards and at the bottom of hills and conduct speed traps on their own. But a supervising officer, usually someone like the chief of police, must authorize the creation of a DUI roadblock. Usually, a “supervisor” is someone directly accountable to voters or a civilian official, like a city manager.
Mr. Big can delegate the operational details to a lower-level supervisor, like a captain. But with one important exception, officers must do as they’re told at checkpoints. They have no operational discretion.
How Police Must Publicize DUI Checkpoints
Officers don’t place pins on Google Maps to warn drivers about speed traps. Officers must publicize DUI checkpoints in advance. The publicity and timing must allow motorists to avoid the area altogether, if they wish to do so.
Most police departments post a Facebook note a few hours before the checkpoint starts up. That’s probably not sufficient. Unless people religiously check the department’s Facebook page, which is highly unlikely, they know nothing about the pending checkpoint. However, police departments probably don’t need to take out full-page ads in the local newspaper. There’s a lot of grey area between these two extremes.
Where DUI Checkpoints Can Be Legally Set Up in Georgia
Officers often set up speed traps on highways and at speed limit change points, like when the speed limit reduces at city limits.
Supervisors cannot authorize checkpoints on highways. These locations are too dangerous. Supervisors cannot set up checkpoints on residential streets either. They’re too disruptive. That leaves major four-lane surface streets.
The location must be safe for officers as well. Officers are exposed to danger if they stand around in high crime areas. We’ll follow up on that point below.
Why DUI Checkpoints Must Be Clearly Marked
Speed traps are invisible. That’s why they call them “traps.” DUI roadblocks must be clearly visible, for several reasons.
First, signs must convey the nature of the detention (“DUI Checkpoint Ahead”) and give general instructions (“Have Drivers’ License and Proof of Insurance Ready”). These instructions relate to another Constitutional right, which is examined below.
Second, visible checkpoints are safe checkpoints. Speed trap safety doesn’t matter. DUI checkpoint safety matters. Drivers stop, seemingly for no reason. So, officers must deploy traffic cones or other such obstacles well ahead of the actual checkpoint, so motorists slow down.
Third, the checkpoint must be visible so motorists may turn around and avoid it. Officers immediately assume that U-turners are probably drunk drivers. So, a patrol car will probably tail these drivers for at least several blocks. However, these officers lose the Fourth Amendment suspension power. So, the tailing officer must have reasonable suspicion, which is basically an evidence-based hunch, to pull over the motorist.
How Officers Choose Which Drivers to Stop
This requirement may be the biggest one. Cops at speed traps randomly pull over speeders whom, for whatever reason, the officer deems dangerous. But random DUI checkpoints are not “random” in any sense of the word.
The aforementioned supervisor setup must normally include a detention formula. Standard formulas usually call for detaining every third or fourth vehicle. This formula keeps traffic flowing and effectively allows officers to look for drunk drivers.
Unless they independently have reasonable suspicion (e.g. the driver has bloodshot eyes or slurred speech), at no time can officers deviate from the formula. Well, at least almost at no time.
Limited Detention Time
Once again, no hard and fast rules apply in this area. Compliant checkpoints give officers limited Fourth Amendment immunity, and this immunity is quite limited. Therefore, if drivers must wait in the checkout line longer than about thirty seconds, that’s too long.
Officers have some limited operational discretion in this area. They can change the formula to speed up the line. For example, instead of stopping every third vehicle, they may switch to every fourth or fifth vehicle.
Incidentally, DUI checkpoints must target likely DUI suspects. A checkpoint in a mostly white area (since most DUI defendants are white) during the Labor Day holiday is a legitimate checkpoint. A roadblock in a mostly nonwhite area is probably an illegal pretext checkpoint. That’s especially true if officers arrest almost as many people for outstanding warrants and non-DUI violations, like drug possession, as they arrest for drunk driving.
Sobriety checkpoint stops often don’t hold up in court. For a free consultation with an experienced Marietta criminal defense attorney, contact The Phillips Law Firm, LLC. We routinely handle matters in Cobb County and nearby jurisdictions.
