A federal judge on Wednesday suggested that the District refrain from putting up any more police checkpoints until the court can rule on its constitutionality.
During a hearing over a lawsuit seeking the end of the District’s controversial program, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said he likely would not order a preliminary injunction to stop the controversial roadblocks because the city has not reinstated the program since it began last month in the Trinidad neighborhood in Northeast Washington.
But Leon questioned the judgment of setting up more safety zones while the lawsuit is before his court.
District officials did not say whether they would erect more checkpoints before Leon makes his determination.
The District’s attorney, Thomas Koger, said that it’s unlikely because the measure requires a wealth of police resources and it is tailored to quell violent crime in specific high-crime neighborhoods.
“If used widespread, it will create public unhappiness, and the police department does not want to create public unhappiness,” Koger said.
Koger argued that the checkpoints are not designed to deter general crime, a use that has been ruled unconstitutional in other court cases. He said they are designed to protect residents from drive-by shootings.
“People in Trinidad are not getting in their cars and shooting people in the neighborhood and then pulling back into their driveway,” Koger said. The shooters are driving in from other parts of the city using stolen cars, he said.
Mary Verheyden-Hilliard, the lawyer representing four D.C. residents in the class-action suit, argued that the program was a flagrant violation of residents’ civil rights.
“It is an extraordinary program, the likes of which I am unaware ever having been practiced in the United States,” she told Leon.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said she would be willing to destroy some of the information collected from people who drove up to the checkpoints. But the department would need to keep the names and license plate numbers for police records, Koger said.
Under the Neighborhood Safety Zone program, D.C. police can seal off entire neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and turn away people who don’t have a legitimate reason for being there.
During the five-day Trinidad checkpoint, police said they stopped 951 people, turned away 47 and arrested one for driving with an open container of alcohol.
