Montana Authorizes Temporary Roadblocks, With a Written Plan and 48 Hours of Media Notice

Temporary roadblocks live in Title 46, chapter 5, part 5 of the Montana Code, a part that has been thinned out over the years: 46-5-501 and 46-5-503 through 46-5-505 are repealed, 46-5-506 through 46-5-509 are reserved, and only 46-5-502 and 46-5-510 remain in force. Section 46-5-502(1) authorizes a law enforcement agency of the state to establish temporary roadblocks on the highways within its own jurisdiction for exactly three purposes. The first is to apprehend persons known to be wanted for a violation of the laws of Montana, of another state, or of the United States. The second, except as provided in 7-33-2212, MCA, is to respond to an active emergency, defined in subsection (4)(a) as an incident that threatens public safety, health or welfare and requires immediate action. The third, in subsection (1)(c), is to respond to or mitigate conditions in areas where a significant number of known causal factors of motor vehicle accidents involving fatalities, injuries or other serious legal violations are known to have occurred.

Subsection (2) is what makes a Montana roadblock a document check as well as a stop: during a temporary roadblock, verification of a valid driver's license, vehicle registration and insurance may be required. Subsection (3) then imposes a limit that is easy to miss and is worth knowing at the window. In the course of a roadblock conducted under subsection (1)(c), a law enforcement officer may not issue a ticket, citation or summons for a secondary offense. Subsection (4)(b) defines a secondary offense as one, including a violation of 61-13-103, for which an officer may only cite after the driver has already been stopped for another offense. Section 61-13-103 is Montana's seatbelt requirement, so a driver stopped at a safety roadblock cannot be cited for a seatbelt violation discovered there.

The procedural spine is in 46-5-510, and it applies only to roadblocks under 46-5-502(1)(c). A written plan is required, and subsection (1)(a) says it must be designed by the agency to ensure motorist safety, minimize motorist inconvenience, and prevent the arbitrary selection of vehicles by providing a schedule for the selection of vehicles to be stopped. Subsection (1)(b) requires advance approval by supervisory officers within the agency. Subsection (1)(c) requires that the roadblock be minimally intrusive and not allow unconstrained discretion by the agents performing it. Subsection (1)(d) lists six things the plan must contain: the purpose of the roadblock, its location, date and time, the pattern sequence of vehicles to be stopped, a drawing showing how it will be established, a copy of the public service announcement to be used to advertise it, and the names of the media to be notified.

Publicity is not optional. Section 46-5-510(2) requires that all major media outlets in the area where the roadblock is to be performed be notified at least 48 hours before the scheduled roadblock. Section 46-5-510(3) confirms the limit of the whole apparatus: none of it applies to a roadblock established under 46-5-502(1)(a) to apprehend a wanted person or under 46-5-502(1)(b) to respond to an active emergency. Those two can be set up without a written plan, without a selection schedule and without media notice. Section 46-5-510(4) permits the Department of Justice to adopt rules to implement the part.

The current shape of both sections comes from Chapter 86, Laws of 2017, which added the active-emergency ground, the accident-conditions ground, the document-verification sentence and the secondary-offense bar to 46-5-502, and amended 46-5-510 to carry the plan contents and the 48-hour notice. Nothing in either section refers to alcohol, drugs, breath testing or impaired driving, so a Montana checkpoint is a general safety and document stop rather than a statutory sobriety checkpoint. Implied consent obligations, if a driver is then arrested, come from a different statute entirely: 61-8-1016, MCA.

A driver who declines to stop at a lawfully established roadblock faces the ordinary consequences of failing to obey a peace officer directing traffic under 61-9-105, MCA, and, if the driver flees, 61-8-707, MCA, on fleeing from or eluding a peace officer. A driver who cannot produce a license at the window is cited under 61-5-116, a misdemeanor punishable under 61-5-307 by a fine of up to $500, up to 6 months in jail, or both, subject to the rule that producing a valid license in court defeats it.

The defence side of a checkpoint case turns on the paperwork the statute requires: whether the roadblock was conducted under 46-5-502(1)(c) at all, whether the written plan required by 46-5-510(1) existed and was approved in advance, whether the selection of vehicles followed the pattern sequence the plan set out rather than officer discretion, and whether the 48-hour media notification in 46-5-510(2) was given. Those points are raised on a motion to suppress in the court where the charge is filed, and they sit on top of the Article II, Section 10 and Section 11 protections in the Montana Constitution. A citation for a secondary offense such as a seatbelt violation issued at a subsection (1)(c) roadblock is barred outright by 46-5-502(3).