Arkansas Has No Checkpoint Statute, and Its Testing Duties Begin at Arrest

Begin with what is not there. A full text search of the Arkansas Code Annotated for "sobriety checkpoint" returns nothing. "Roadblock" returns nothing, and so does the plural, which matters because the Arkansas search engine does no stemming. "Checkpoint" returns exactly two sections, § 5-73-120 on carrying a weapon and § 5-75-102 on operating an aircraft while intoxicated, and both are about an airport security checkpoint. The Code of Arkansas Rules, the official codification of state agency rules under Ark. Code § 25-15-218, returns zero results for both "sobriety checkpoint" and "roadblock". Arkansas therefore has no statutory authorisation of the kind Florida wrote, and no statutory bar of the kind that leaves Texas without them.

What the Code does regulate begins one step later. Ark. Code § 5-65-202(a), re-enacted whole by Act 1031 of 2017, says a person who operates a motor vehicle, or a motorboat on the waters of this state, or is in actual physical control of either, is deemed to have given consent to one or more chemical tests of his or her breath, saliva or urine for the purpose of determining alcohol concentration or controlled substance content, but only if one of three things is true. The person is arrested for an offense arising out of an act alleged to have been committed while driving or boating while intoxicated or with an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more. Or the person is involved in an accident while operating or in actual physical control of a vehicle or motorboat. Or, at the time the person is arrested for driving or boating while intoxicated, the officer has reasonable cause to believe the person is intoxicated or over 0.08. Merely being stopped is none of the three.

Blood is treated separately and more strictly. Act 147 of 2021 rewrote § 5-65-202(c) so that, absent exigent circumstances, a test of a person's blood to determine alcohol concentration, controlled substance content or other intoxicating substance content requires a warrant based on probable cause that the person was operating or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle or motorboat while intoxicated, or the person's express consent. The same act made the identical change to § 5-65-208(d). Act 1031 of 2017 had also removed blood from the list of substances covered by the implied consent in subsection (a), which is why the current text reads breath, saliva or urine.

Refusal has consequences, and they too are keyed to arrest. Ark. Code § 5-65-205(a)(1) operates only "if a person under arrest refuses upon the request of a law enforcement officer to submit to a chemical test designated by the law enforcement agency." When that happens no test is given, the officer seizes the driving licence, permit or other evidence of driving privilege, and immediately issues a temporary driving permit under § 5-65-402. Subsection (a)(2) makes refusal a strict liability offense and a violation. The administrative consequences in subsection (b)(2)(A) escalate sharply: suspension for 180 days on a first offense, two years for a second within five years of the first, revocation for three years for a third within five years, and lifetime revocation for a fourth within five years. An ignition interlock restricted licence under § 5-65-118 may be issued immediately, but only on a first offense and only where the arrest was for alcohol intoxication, and the restricted permit provision of § 5-65-120 does not apply to a first refusal suspension.

The practical shape for a driver stopped at a checkpoint in Arkansas is therefore this. No statute names the stop. The implied consent statute is not engaged by the stop itself. A portable breath test at the window is not the designated chemical test that § 5-65-205 attaches penalties to, because that section speaks of a person under arrest refusing a test designated by the law enforcement agency. And a blood draw cannot follow from the stop alone: it needs a warrant, exigent circumstances or express consent.

Refusing the designated chemical test after arrest is a strict liability offense and a violation under Ark. Code § 5-65-205(a)(2), which by Ark. Code § 5-4-201(c)(1) carries a fine not exceeding $100 where the statute sets no different limit. The real penalty is administrative. The Office of Driver Services must suspend or revoke the driving privilege of an arrested person who refuses, on the ladder in § 5-65-205(b)(2)(A): 180 days, two years, three years and lifetime. The officer seizes the licence at the roadside under § 5-65-205(a)(1)(B) and issues a temporary permit under § 5-65-402. Because nothing in the Code authorises a checkpoint, there is no separate checkpoint offense to be cited for and no statutory procedure, advance publicity requirement or supervisory approval standard written into Arkansas law that a driver can point to.