Where are your papers, old man ??

Rights Boy’s good friend Mike Burgher opines about a recent traffic safety checkpoint in the Urbandale Register this morning. You can read the letter below and online with comments by other Des Moines Register readers here.


On Sept. 21, eastbound traffic on Hickman Road was subjected to a "traffic safety checkpoint" with traffic reduced to one lane, drivers randomly stopped, vehicles inspected, and licenses and registrations examined.

It was pretty high-profile, too - collaboration between the Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau, Central Iowa Traffic Safety Task Force and Urbandale, Clive and Windsor Heights police departments.

While it is quite legal in Iowa to set up a checkpoint and stop citizens without cause, request their papers and inspect and search their cars, it still bothers me. It reminds me how easily today we accept without question the chipping away at privacy, due process, protection from unreasonable search to name a few - all in the name of education or security or terrorists or whatever.What was the purpose or goal of this event and how much did the whole thing cost? What were the expected outcomes and did the event achieve its objectives? Because from my perspective watching, it looked like a huge waste of taxpayer money and took valuable public safety personnel off the streets.

We have a great police department in Urbandale as I'm sure there are in the surrounding communities. But I think it has more important things to do. As far as the Traffic Safety Bureau and Traffic Safety Task Force - if this is what these groups spend their time dreaming up, they should be dismantled and save the taxpayers some money.