MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Police in the Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Heights know they’re not allowed to use checkpoints to search drivers and their cars for drugs.
So they’re trying the next best thing: fake drug checkpoints.
Police in the city of 19,000 recently posted large yellow signs along Interstate 271 that warned drivers that there was a drug checkpoint ahead, to be prepared to stop and that there was a drug-sniffing police dog in use.
There was no such checkpoint, just police officers waiting to see if any drivers would react suspiciously after seeing the signs.
Authorities say that four people were stopped, with some arrests and drugs seized.
They declined to be more specific.
The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reports that some civil rights leaders and at least one person pulled over by police are questioning the tactic, wondering if it could violate the Fourth Amendment against unlawful searches and seizures.
“I don’t think it accomplishes any public safety goals,” said Terry Gilbert, a prominent Cleveland civil rights attorney.
“I don’t think it’s good to mislead the population for any reason if you’re a government agency.”
Nick Worner, a spokesman for the Cleveland office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said his office will be looking further into the fake checkpoints to determine whether anyone’s rights may be being violated.
Dominic Vitantonio, a Mayfield Heights assistant prosecutor, said the fake checkpoints are legal and a legitimate effort in the war on drugs.
“We should be applauded for doing this,” Dominic Vitantonio said.
“It’s a good thing.”
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