WICHITA, Kansas – The next time you go through a “check lane” it may not be for DUI. A Wichita group wants to pull you over and give you a survey.
What’s being proposed here, however, raises I think serious constitutional questions,” says Legal Expert Dan Monnat of Wichita. Monnat says DUI check lanes have been ruled legal on the Supreme Court level. So, too, have roadblocks for matters of keeping our national borders secure. But this one, he says, may be another matter.
Fourth Amendment issues come into play. “This is not a random suspicion-less seizure of motorists for safety purposes,” says Monnat. “It’s a seizure to conduct a survey to ask motorists where they’re coming from and where they’re going and maybe why.”
The Wichita Area Metro Planning Organization says the cops will be at the stops, but only as observers to keep traffic flowing. The Organization put out a press release that reads, in part: “The primary objective of the External Station Survey is to provide detailed information regarding traffic entering and leaving the WAMPO region at key roadway locations…”
The organization says it will use the information from the surveys to monitor traffic patterns, find out how many people are riding in cars and where they are going. The group may also be taking pictures of license plates. The purpose? To send surveys in the mail to those who have driven through the “check lane” and declined to take the survey.
KSN TV – By Craig Andres