New Jersey DWI Checkpoints: One Statute, and It Only Bans Motorcycle-Only Stops

Read the section closely and it does two jobs. The prohibition in the first paragraph is narrow and specific: a law enforcement agency "shall not conduct a roadside checkpoint or other systematic inspection of vehicles along any public road, street, or highway of this State" where the checkpoint is set up for the sole purpose of inspecting motorcycles. The word doing the work is "sole." A checkpoint that stops every vehicle and happens to include motorcycles is untouched, and so is one aimed at impaired driving generally. The second paragraph is a savings clause that leaves every other checkpoint in place. New Jersey therefore governs checkpoint practice through case law and Attorney General policy rather than through the statute book, and there is no legislated requirement of advance publicity, no statutory command-approval rule and no statutory time limit on how long you may be held.

What you owe at the stop is statutory, and it is short. R.S. 39:3-29 requires you to have your driver's license, the vehicle's registration certificate and an insurance identification card in your possession while in charge of the vehicle, to exhibit all three on request by a police officer, and to write your name in the officer's presence. Registration and insurance may be shown on a phone, tablet or computer, and the same section provides that doing so "does not constitute consent for a police officer or judge to access any other contents on the device." Failing to produce is a $150 fine, and the municipal court judge may dismiss the charge if you later exhibit documents that were valid on the day you were charged.

Smell alone cannot escalate a New Jersey checkpoint stop. N.J.S.A. 2C:35-10c, enacted as section 61 of the 2021 legalization act, provides that the odor of cannabis or burnt cannabis, possession of no more than the lawful amount, and that possession in proximity to any amount of cash are none of them reasonable articulable suspicion of a crime, individually or collectively, except on school property owned by a school or school board and inside detention, adult correctional and youth correction facilities. A roadside checkpoint is none of those places.

Breath testing at a New Jersey checkpoint is governed by implied consent, but the consent is conditional. N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.2(a) deems every operator on a public road, street, highway or quasi-public area in the State to have consented to breath samples, but only where the request comes from "a police officer who has reasonable grounds to believe that such person has been operating a motor vehicle in violation of" R.S.39:4-50. Subsection (e) then bars any forcible test: no chemical test or specimen "may be made or taken forcibly and against physical resistance thereto by the defendant." The officer must instead read a standard statement prepared by the Chief Administrator of the Motor Vehicle Commission telling you what refusal costs.

Refusal is its own offense in New Jersey, charged under N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.4a and heard in the municipal court. A first refusal costs a fine of not less than $300 and not more than $500, plus forfeiture of driving privileges until an ignition interlock device is installed in the vehicle you most often operate. A second refusal adds a one to two year forfeiture running after installation and a fine of $500 to $1,000, and a third or subsequent refusal carries an eight year forfeiture and a $1,000 fine. Before convicting, the municipal court must find by a preponderance of the evidence that the arresting officer had probable cause to believe you were driving or in actual physical control while under the influence, that you were placed under arrest where appropriate, and that you refused on request. If those elements are not established, no conviction issues.

The underlying offense is R.S. 39:4-50, which sets the blood alcohol threshold at 0.08 percent. A first offense at 0.08 percent or higher but less than 0.10 percent draws a fine of $250 to $400, 12 to 48 hours at an Intoxicated Driver Resource Center spread over two consecutive days of at least six hours each, up to 30 days imprisonment in the court's discretion, and forfeiture of driving privileges until an ignition interlock is installed. New Jersey also lets a driver arrested in that band install the interlock voluntarily before conviction and ask the Motor Vehicle Commission for a license carrying the interlock notation, and a driver who does so and who held a valid New Jersey license in good standing at the time of the offense is not subject to the fine.

A. 4a in the municipal court, with a $300 to $500 fine and license forfeiture until an ignition interlock is installed on a first offense, $500 to $1,000 and a one to two year forfeiture on a second, and $1,000 with an eight year forfeiture on a third or subsequent. 39:4-50(f), and a conviction for a substantially similar offense in another jurisdiction counts as a prior. 39:4-50 conviction arising from the same incident. S. 39:3-29. A. 39:8-91, which carries no penalty clause of its own and operates as a prohibition on the agency rather than an offense chargeable against a driver.