Idaho Road Blocks Are Only for Catching Wanted Persons

Idaho spells its roadblock statute as two words, which is why it is easy to miss. Sections 19-620 through 19-623 were added by 1957 Session Laws ch. 31 and sit inside the arrest chapter of the criminal procedure title. Section 19-620 defines a temporary road block as any structure, device or means used by duly authorized law enforcement officers of the state of Idaho and of its political subdivisions for the purpose of controlling all traffic through a point on a highway whereby all vehicles may be slowed or stopped. So Idaho did contemplate stopping every car at a point on the road.

What it did not do is give that power a general purpose. Section 19-621 authorises road blocks only for the purpose of apprehending persons reasonably believed by such officers to be wanted for violation of the laws of this state, of any other state, or of the United States, and using such highways or streets. It also limits who may establish one: duly elected or appointed sheriffs, state policemen, or policemen of cities of the first or second class, acting in their respective or adjacent jurisdictions. Screening the general motoring public for impairment is not apprehending a person already believed to be wanted, and no other Idaho section supplies that authority.

Section 19-622 is where the practical detail sits. If time and circumstances allow, four minimum requirements apply for warning and protecting the traveling public. The road block must be at a point clearly visible for at least 100 yards in either direction. A sign reading stop must be placed on the center line, in letters large and luminous enough to be readable at 50 yards in both directions, day or night. At least one blue light must be burning at the side of the road, flashing or intermittent, clearly visible to oncoming traffic at 100 yards. And at not less than 200 yards out, warning signs must tell oncoming traffic that a police stop lies ahead, with a burning beam light, flare or reflector placed near them to draw attention to the sign. That blue light requirement dovetails with § 49-910A(1), which reserves blue lights, lenses and globes to police vehicles.

The DUI statutes themselves are built around individualised suspicion. Section 18-8002(1) deems every driver in Idaho to have consented to evidentiary testing for alcohol concentration and for drugs or other intoxicating substances, but only where the testing is administered at the request of a peace officer having reasonable grounds to believe that person has been driving or was in actual physical control of a motor vehicle in violation of § 18-8004 or § 18-8006. Implied consent in Idaho therefore attaches to a suspicion about you, not to your arrival at a stopping point.

Idaho's other stopping scheme is administrative rather than criminal. Section 40-510(1) authorises the Idaho Transportation Department to establish temporary or permanent ports of entry or checking stations on any highway, at places the department deems necessary, to enforce a listed set of laws. Section 40-510(2) gives the employees who staff them limited peace officer authority, restricted by subsection (5), which forbids any department employee to carry or use a firearm in the performance of those duties unless the director of the Idaho State Police authorises it in writing. Alongside it, § 49-676 lets a commercial diesel vehicle over 26,000 pounds be visually inspected for dyed fuel when it is stopped at a fixed or portable check station established under § 40-510, or when otherwise lawfully stopped, and § 49-676(3) then states flatly that neither the Idaho State Police nor the transportation department shall set up random inspection stations for the purpose of testing for dyed diesel.

The only place the word sobriety appears in the Idaho Code has nothing to do with stopping traffic. Sections 67-1412 through 67-1416, added by 2014 Session Laws ch. 240, create the 24/7 sobriety and drug monitoring program inside the office of the attorney general. Section 67-1413(2) requires the statewide 24/7 programme to use a primary testing methodology that allows immediate sanctions for noncompliance at an affordable cost, and § 67-1413(3) requires it to be evidence-based against at least two named criteria. Section 67-1415 lists who may use it: any court, the commission for pardons and parole, the department of juvenile corrections, the driver's license section of the transportation department, any county or juvenile probation department, the department of correction, the department of health and welfare on child protection issues, and a law enforcement entity dealing with domestic violence. Section 67-1416 makes the local law enforcement agency collect the testing fee and deposit it into a local 24/7 programme account under the attorney general's rules. Idaho's chosen instrument for repeat alcohol testing is therefore a supervision programme aimed at named individuals, not a screen of the passing public.

Running a road block carries its own offence. Section 19-623 provides that any person who proceeds or travels through a road block without subjecting himself to the traffic control so established is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $300, imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or both. That is the only penalty Idaho attaches to a road block. Where an officer stops a vehicle without lawful authority, § 18-703 makes it a misdemeanor for a public officer, or a person pretending to be one, to arrest or detain a person against his will under pretense or color of legal authority without regular process or other lawful authority, and Idaho Code § 5-220 gives one year to bring an action for wrongful seizure by an officer.

On the driver's side, refusing evidentiary testing after a lawful request under § 18-8002 costs a $250 civil penalty, mandatory ignition interlock on every vehicle the driver operates for a year beyond the suspension, and an absolute license suspension of one year for a first refusal or two years for a second within ten years, with seven calendar days to request a hearing at which the driver carries the burden of proof. Section 18-8002(2) also states that the person has no right to consult an attorney before submitting to the testing.

None of that is triggered by a road block; it follows the officer's reasonable grounds about the individual driver. Enforcement at an Idaho Transportation Department checking station runs through § 40-510(4), which lets an appointed employee issue misdemeanor traffic citations under § 49-1409 and infraction citations under chapter 15 of title 49.