DUI Checkpoints in Arizona: No Statute Governs Them

Start with what is not there. The words "checkpoint" and "roadblock" do not appear anywhere in the Arizona Revised Statutes. A full text search of the Legislature's own statute database returns no sections for either term, while the same search returns 92 sections for "marijuana" and two for "flagpole," so the zero is a real absence rather than a broken query. Neither does the catchline index of the whole of title 28, which runs from § 28-101 to the end of the transportation code, list a single section on sobriety checkpoints. Arizona has no statute authorizing them, no statute banning them, and no statute setting rules for advance publicity, supervisory sign-off, stop sequence or duration.

What title 28 does supply is A.R.S. § 28-1594, and it is worth reading closely because it does not fit a checkpoint. It lets a peace officer or a duly authorized agent of a traffic enforcement agency "stop and detain a person as is reasonably necessary to investigate an actual or suspected violation of this title." That is individualised suspicion about a particular driver. A checkpoint stops every car in the lane, including drivers about whom nothing at all is suspected, so its legality rests on constitutional analysis rather than on this grant. The relevant Arizona text is article 2, § 8 of the state constitution: "No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law."

Once you are stopped, the statutes take over and they are specific. A.R.S. § 28-1381(A)(1) makes it unlawful to drive or be in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, any drug or a vapor releasing substance "if the person is impaired to the slightest degree." That phrase is the Arizona threshold, and it sits below any number. Paragraph 2 adds the 0.08 rule measured within two hours of driving, paragraph 3 reaches any drug listed in § 13-3401 or its metabolite in the body, paragraph 4 sets 0.04 for commercial drivers, and paragraph 5 sets 0.04 for a vehicle for hire or a transportation network company driver. Subsection G builds in presumptions: 0.05 or less presumes you were not under the influence, above 0.05 but below 0.08 raises no presumption either way, and 0.08 or more presumes you were.

Implied consent does not attach at the roadside. A.R.S. § 28-1321(A) makes consent to a blood, breath, urine or other bodily substance test conditional on the person being "arrested" for an offense arising out of the chapter, and the test must be directed by an officer with reasonable grounds to believe the person was driving or in actual physical control while under the influence. After arrest, subsection B requires that a refusing driver be told the license will be suspended or denied for twelve months, or for two years for a second or subsequent refusal within eighty-four months. Failing to expressly agree, or failing to successfully complete the test, is deemed a refusal.

The administrative machinery after a refusal runs on thirty-day clocks. Under § 28-1321(D) the test is not given, except under § 28-1388(E) or a search warrant, and the officer files a certified report of the refusal with the Arizona Department of Transportation within thirty days of the arrest. The officer serves an order of suspension effective thirty days after service, takes any Arizona license, and issues a temporary driving permit valid for thirty days. Subsection G requires the order to tell you that a written or online hearing request must reach the department within thirty days or the suspension becomes final, and that reinstatement follows only after alcohol or other drug screening. Under subsection E the certified report is subject to the perjury penalty in A.R.S. § 28-1561 and must state the officer's reasonable grounds, the manner of refusal, and that you were advised of the consequences.

Two other statutes shape what a checkpoint stop can turn into. Marijuana odor cannot by itself supply reasonable articulable suspicion under A.R.S. § 36-2852(C), but that subsection expressly does not apply while an officer is investigating a violation of § 28-1381, which is exactly what a sobriety stop is; and under § 36-2852(B) metabolites or components of marijuana in the body violate § 28-1381(A)(3) only where the person is also impaired to the slightest degree. On identity, a licensed driver must display a license on demand under A.R.S. § 28-3169(A), refusal being a class 2 misdemeanor under § 28-1595(B), while a passenger is compelled to give identity only where the officer has reasonable cause to believe that passenger violated title 28, under § 28-1595(C).

§ 28-1381 is a class 1 misdemeanor under subsection C, and subsection I sets the floor: not less than ten consecutive days in jail with no probation or suspended sentence unless the entire term is served, a fine of not less than $250, a $500 assessment to the prison construction and operations fund, a further $500 assessment to the public safety equipment fund, a certified ignition interlock device where intoxicating liquor was involved, and mandatory traffic survival school. Subsection J lets the judge suspend all but one day if a court-ordered screening, education or treatment program is completed.

A second violation within eighty-four months triggers subsection K: not less than ninety days in jail with thirty served consecutively, a fine of not less than $500, at least thirty hours of community restitution, a one-year revocation of driving privilege, and two assessments of $1,250 each. Separately, refusing the chemical test after arrest costs a twelve-month license suspension under § 28-1321(B), or two years for a second or subsequent refusal within eighty-four months, with reinstatement conditional on alcohol or other drug screening.