Denying a civil rights group’s claims that drivers’ license and sobriety checkpoints target Latino members of the community and hurt downtown businesses, Santa Maria officials said the police operations would continue unchanged.
Latino rights group PUEBLO presented eight recommendations to City Council members at a public forum on April 22, proposing changes to the city’s police checkpoint and impound policy.
In the document, PUEBLO questioned the legality of license checkpoints and claimed that impounding vehicles of drivers caught without a license violates the Fourth Amendment’s provision against unreasonable search and seizure.
Among its recommendations, the group proposed that the city restrict 30-day impounds to drivers who have never been issued a license or whose licenses were revoked for serious crimes, such as DUI. Currently, the cars of all unlicensed drivers are impounded for a month, even if the driver previously had a valid license.
The group also proposed that the City Council appoint an ad hoc committee of city officials, local business owners, and other citizens affected by checkpoints. The committee, according to PUEBLO, would “evaluate the current SMPD policies with respect to checkpoints and make recommendations to the City Council to amend them as necessary.”
Santa Maria Mayor Larry Lavagnino responded to the recommendations with a letter to PUEBLO Education Fund’s Belen Seara dated May 20.
Based on the findings of City Attorney Gil Trujillo, who reviewed past court cases and the checkpoint policies of other cities, Lavagnino said he saw no reason to alter the checkpoint procedures.
“We’re complying with the state laws as written, and we’re going to continue to impound cars,” Lavagnino said.
PUEBLO’s Seara could not be reached for comment.
Since October, the city has impounded 1,200 vehicles of unlicensed drivers as a result of checkpoints, the mayor stated. Lavagnino cited the fact that Santa Maria is the worst for hit and runs among similar-sized cities in California as reason enough to justify the impounds.
“We’ve got to do something to try to stop that,” he said. “We’re trying to make it a lot safer for everybody.”
City Council members Alice Patino, Mike Cordero, and Hilda Zacarias attended the forum held at Santa Maria Public Library. Zacarias said she supports PUEBLO’s right to raise the issue, but said the city needs to uphold the existing law.
“If you’re unlicensed, the law states that you will be cited and your car will be impounded for 30 days. We don’t have an option as a city to not apply that law,” Zacarias said. “Do I want us to violate the constitutional rights of any individual in the way that we apply this law? Absolutely not. Do I want us as a city to ensure that we are following all the rules and regulations as they apply to this particular activity? Absolutely. If there is ever a case where we are not doing that, I expect us as a city to take responsibility for that.”
PUEBLO—which stands for People United for Economic Justice Building Leadership through Organizing—supports the legalization of undocumented migrant workers and immigration reform.
In April, PUEBLO North County organizer Antonio Rivera Sanchez told the Sun that license checkpoints negatively affect Latino business owners and that car impounds hurt migrant workers’ ability to make a living.
“The state and federal governments know that there are people here without documents, but they are contributing to the economy. They are working hard, going to the stores, and spending money,” Sanchez said in April. “Those checkpoints are confiscating the cars of working families. If it’s for DUI, that’s fine, but if not, we want to work [with police] in order to make a change in the manner they’re conducting them.”
Mayor Lavagnino said the city has no way to change the existing law and that PUEBLO should take the issue to the state Legislature if the group seeks alterations. He said any claim that checkpoints target the city’s Hispanic population is simply not true.
“I will not accept that our police department is doing racial profiling. That is not happening,” Lavagnino said. “It’s strictly a numbers game, if you want to call it that.”
Zacarias said she supports the idea that every driver in the state be trained, licensed, and insured, regardless of status. She said while she thinks local checkpoints have been conducted lawfully, the city should look at unintentional consequences involved in their implementation, especially if checkpoints are placed north of Stowell Road, where neighborhood makeup is about 80 percent Latino.
“I think that one of the things we’re failing to recognize in this issue is the environment of intimidation that is created by checkpoints that are happening with the frequency that they’re happening,” Zacarias said. “We’re driving folks away from downtown, not because people are afraid of being arrested for driving without a license or driving under the influence, but rather because it’s an intimidating process.”
She said the checkpoints, which are currently set up at 6 p.m., should be initiated between midnight and 3 a.m. when bars close and drunk drivers are more likely to be out.
Lavagnino disagreed with Zacarias that the checkpoints dissuade downtown traffic and business.
“It isn’t like they’re there for 20 minutes,” he pointed out. “If you’re not doing something wrong like drinking and driving, you’re through there in nothing flat.”
Contact Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 11-18, 2009.