LAW ENFORCEMENT
Police use ruse for DWI checkpoint
The Erie County STOP-DWI Office and several area police agencies wanted the local media to know about a driving while intoxicated checkpoint planned for Thursday evening in Lackawanna.
They just didn’t trust reporters not to leak in advance the time and location of the checkpoint. So they lied about the starting time in a news release sent to media agencies.
The news release stated that the DWI checkpoint planned for Route 5 at Dona Street would start at 10 p. m.
“Please do not announce operations prior to 11:00 p. m. tonight,” the release from Erie County’s STOP-DWI Office requested. “Also, during coverage, please do not reveal the location of the checkpoint.”
However, the checkpoint involving the Erie County sheriff’s deputies and police from Lackawanna, Hamburg and Cheektowaga actually started at 7 p. m., said Lackawanna Police Capt. Jim Michel.
Police started the checkpoint three hours early because — despite the request in the release — they still feared the TV news stations would show up at 7 and inform their viewers of the precise checkpoint location, Michel said Friday.
More than 1,000 vehicles passed through the checkpoint in each direction between 7 and 11:30 p. m., when the operation ended, Michel said.
Officers and deputies arrested and charged two drivers with driving while intoxicated and one driver with driving with a license that was suspended because of a previous DWI conviction, he said.
