North Dakota Roadblocks: Chapter 24-15 Authorizes Fugitive Stops and Never Mentions Impaired Driving

Chapter 24-15 is short, and every part of it matters. Section 24-15-01 defines a temporary roadblock as any structure, device or means used by police, sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, game wardens, highway patrol troopers, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or officers of the United States Border Patrol to control traffic through a point on a highway, road or street so that all vehicles may be slowed or stopped. That list of who may set one up is unusual, and it is closed: it names game wardens and federal border officers alongside state and local police.

Section 24-15-02 supplies the authority and, with it, the purpose. Officers may establish temporary roadblocks in their own jurisdictions or in other jurisdictions within the state for the purpose of apprehending persons wanted for violation of the laws of this state, of any other state, or of the United States of America, and using the highways, roads or streets of this state for the purpose of escape. Read literally, the statutory warrant is a manhunt tool. Impaired driving is not named, no provision of chapter 24-15 refers to alcohol, and a full-text scan of all 2,531 chapters of the Century Code finds the word checkpoint nowhere and the word roadblock only inside this chapter. So a reader who expects to find North Dakota's sobriety checkpoint rules in statute will not find them, because the Legislative Assembly has not written any.

What chapter 24-15 does not do is declare other stops unlawful. Section 24-15-04 preserves existing law in terms: nothing in the chapter may be deemed to limit or encroach upon the existing authority of North Dakota law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties involving traffic control and criminal apprehension. The lawfulness of a checkpoint run for a purpose the chapter does not name is therefore a constitutional question decided by the courts, not a question the Century Code answers.

Where the chapter is precise is safety. Section 24-15-03 sets two minimum requirements for the protection of the traveling public. The roadblock must be established at a point on the highway clearly visible at a distance of not less than three hundred feet, that is 91.44 meters, in either direction. And at least one red light must be placed at the point of the roadblock displaying an intermittent or flashing beam clearly visible to oncoming traffic at not less than three hundred feet under normal atmospheric conditions, which may be supplied by the lighting on a class A authorized emergency vehicle. Those are the only physical standards in North Dakota law for stopping every vehicle on a road.

Being stopped is not the same as being tested. Section 39-20-14(1) conditions the implied consent to an onsite breath screening test on a request by an officer who has reason to believe the individual committed a moving traffic violation or a violation of section 39-08-01, or was involved in a traffic accident as a driver, and who has, through the officer's own observations, formulated an opinion that the individual's body contains alcohol. A driver stopped only because every car in the line was stopped supplies none of those predicates until the officer observes something. Section 39-20-14(3) then requires the officer to tell the individual that North Dakota law requires the screening test and that refusal may result in revocation of driving privileges for at least one hundred eighty days and up to three years.

The refusal consequences have limits worth knowing. Under section 39-20-14(3) a refusal means no screening test may be given, but the refusal is admissible in court if the individual was arrested under section 39-08-01 and took no additional chemical tests, and it is sufficient cause to revoke a licence in the manner set by section 39-20-04, with an administrative hearing under section 39-20-05 and judicial review under section 39-20-06. Under section 39-20-14(4) the director must not revoke for refusing the screening test if the individual later provided a sufficient breath, blood or urine sample for a chemical test requested under section 39-20-01 for the same incident. A driver suspended under chapter 39-20 may also elect the twenty-four seven sobriety program under chapter 54-12 and receive a temporary restricted licence effective after fourteen days of the suspension have been served.

Driving through a lawfully established roadblock without submitting to the traffic control is a class B misdemeanor under N.D.C.C. § 24-15-05, carrying up to thirty days of imprisonment and a $1,500 fine under section 12.1-32-01(6). Refusing the onsite screening test at the roadside is not a crime, but under section 39-20-14(3) it is sufficient cause to revoke a licence for at least one hundred eighty days and up to three years, and it becomes admissible evidence if the driver is arrested under section 39-08-01 and declines the follow-up chemical tests. Contest that revocation through the administrative hearing in section 39-20-05 and the judicial review in section 39-20-06. Driving or being in actual physical control in violation of section 39-08-01 is on the section 39-06.1-05 excepted list, so the noncriminal admission route used for ordinary traffic offenses is closed and the charge must go to court.