On Friday, December 6, 2013, Nina Dean (my assistant) was informed that there was a checkpoint on Highway 79 requesting DNA samples from Missouri citizens. She drove out to the site but did not see a checkpoint. Later, Nina was told that the checkpoint had been completed before she got to the location. My assistant called me and apprised me of the situation.
On Saturday, I talked to the O’Fallon Police Chief and he knew nothing about it. After more investigation by Nina, it was determined that the St. Charles County Sheriff was who set up the roadblock.
My assistant talked to the Sheriff’s office and they explained to her that it was just a checkpoint for the 2013 National Roadside Survey (NRS) of Alcohol and Drugged Driving. The 2013 NRS is the fifth in a series of national roadside surveys of alcohol-, and now drug-involved driving that have been conducted about every 10 years since the 1970s.
The overall objective of the 2013 NRS is to estimate the prevalence of alcohol and drugs (illicit, prescription, and over-the-counter) in drivers on our Nation’s roadways. The data collected will provide information critical to problem identification and program development efforts in coming years. She continued the discussion with them and they promised to investigate it further.
After more investigation, the St. Charles County Sheriff’s office came to the conclusion that they had been duped. They realized that more was going on than just checking alcohol and drug levels in drivers. In fact, swabs of cheek cells and blood draws had been made.
The sheriff’s department sent my office the paperwork that was sent to them and nowhere in the paperwork does it state that they will do this. In fact, it states, “They have passive alcohol sensor devices that they activate for every potential subject to help make an assessment of impairment. A Data Collector will signal a Survey Manager if they suspect a driver is impaired. The Survey Manager will make his/her own assessment and decide if the survey should continue and if the Impaired Driver Protocol should be implemented. This protocol calls for the Survey Manager to request a breath test (if needed) with a PBT that displays the BAC and then offer these choices: 1) Let a sober, licensed passenger drive after breath testing with a PBT that displays the BAC; 2) Call for two friends to come to the site; one to drive the subjects vehicle; 3) Offer to pay for a taxi or tow ride home, and making arrangements for the safe parking of subject’s vehicle if needed; 4) Let subject wait and re-test if BAC is relatively low; 5) Allow subject to walk if the distance is short and BAC is below .08 or below (lone females must be accompanied by a team member); 6) Pay for a hotel if the subject lives far from the survey site.”
Therefore, the organization who contracted with the Sheriff’s department was giving the impression that they were just using breath analyzers and not collecting DNA samples. But now we know that is not true.
Once again, we are witnessing Federal overreach in our state. To end this, I will be proposing legislation to make sure this never happens in the state of Missouri again. Never should our trusted law enforcement agents be put in the situation where they violate the rights of Missourians.
If you have any questions, please call my office at (573) 751-9768
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