automobile and detaining the driver in order to check his driver's
license and the registration of the automobile are unreasonable under the
Fourth Amendment."
"That's what the courts are for," Lynch said. If a driver wants to
take their case to court, they should, he said.
"I think the statistics are bogus," resident Jim Carlile said. "I also
question their criteria, their methodology in determining the number of
hit-and-run accidents.
"As a concerned citizen of Burbank and someone's who's after spoken
out on discrimination issues, I find it inappropriate and unseemly for
our city to be doing this, Carlile said."
But the police department said it has no plans to discontinue the
practice. In fact, more checkpoints are planned for different areas
around the city, Lynch said.
When the checkpoint of July 19 was discussed in the news media,
officials mentioned the check was done randomly.
This concerns the ACLU, Schroeder said.
"If it is random," she said, "it raises questions as to why officers
are stopping certain cars."
Sgt. Ron Caruso of the traffic division said there was a system set up
to make sure that no discrimination was involved. When police officers
were busy, they waved cars through.
"We stopped every car and then our system went back to checking no
cars," he said. "The lead officer would designate the flow of cars."
