Did Councilor Foil DUI Checkpoint in Coachella?

DUI Checkpoint Nets Several Arrests but None For DUI

COACHELLA —The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, Thermal Station, conducted a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) / Driver’s License checkpoint on Friday, Sept. 15, but no one as cited for DUI.

What role, if any, did a Coachella City Councilmember play, if any, in the net results. Sometime, late Friday, Coachella City Councilmember Netfali Galarza alerted his followers to the checkpoint.

“Ojo,” for those who might not know, means “watch out” in Spanish.

The DUI checkpoint was indeed on Cesar Chavez Street, north of Avenue 50, in the city of Coachella, between the hours of 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., just as Galarza said it was.

On Saturday morning, Lynne O’Neill, a retired attorney and community influencer from Thousand Palms, posted a comment on Supervisor Manny Perez’s social media page stating, “Here is the message for the youth of the community. It’s not, ‘don’t drink and drive, it’s don’t get caught.’ At what point in the adults in the room address the Rat Pack behavior of young leaders?’ ”

The checkpoint yielded the following results:

622 vehicles screened
67 vehicles screened in secondary inspection
4 Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs) conducted
0 arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol
0 arrested for driving under the influence of drugs
1 arrested for driving with a suspended driver’s license
27 citations issued for driving without a driver’s license
4 vehicles were stored or impounded
2 narcotics violations
2 probation violations
0 arrested for Felony warrants
9 citations issued for various traffic violations

DUI checkpoint locations are determined based on reported incidents of impaired driving-related crashes. The primary purpose of DUI checkpoints is to promote public safety by taking suspected impaired drivers off roads.

Funding for this checkpoint was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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