Checkstop Warnings

[Nage Waza]

Looks like a battle is brewing between freedom of speech and Checkstops. People are tweeting the locations of Checkstops.

How do you feel about this? I think if they can somehow tie the tweet to obstruction laws, they should.

I would love to see someone expose the tweeters so everyone knows who is behind them. I would go out of my way to avoid doing business with someone warning people about Checkstop locations.

[Notorious Honey Badger]

I think its a bad idea to tweet checkstops. The point of a checkstop is catch drunks. I dont mind warning people about speed traps but this.. ugh. I'd never warn someone about a checkstop

[SHOGUN]

Man what a stupid thing to do.... the person behind this is basically allowing public endangerment. Report that tool.

[gottabekd]

I can understand disapproving of tweeting Checkstop locations.

But if that is made illegal, I don't want to live in this country anymore.

[REDVAN]

Originally Posted by SHOGUN

Man what a stupid thing to do.... the person behind this is basically allowing public endangerment. Report that tool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by gottabekd

I can understand disapproving of tweeting Checkstop locations.

But if that is made illegal, I don't want to live in this country anymore.

Why? It's a deliberate obstruction of justice, and only serves to protect those who should not be driving in the first place. It should be illegal.

[RedMileDJ]

Let me show you guys my experience with this.

On Decemeber 20th I did a search on Twitter for #YYC

I was scrolling through the tweets when I came across this guy:

https://twitter.com/#!/gr8one60

He was tweeting check-stop locations in Calgary. Had been doing it for a few weeks. In fact, if you look at his twitter feed...he still is.

Anyway, I sent the following tweet to the Calgary Police, along with his twitter handle:

https://twitter.com/#!/RedMileDJ/sta...98703498276864

I got back the following tweet from the Calgary Police:

https://twitter.com/#!/calgarypolice...22908047278080

So there you have it. @gr8one60 is a loser and should be charge with some sort of obstruction or whatever. What a piece of crap. The police can't do anything...or won't.

[Mtt48]

From a completely selfish and myopic point of view this is a great idea. Drunks get very squirrely around checkstops so I'd like to know where they are so I can avoid them, thus avoiding the squirly drunk drivers that may hit me.

[jayswin]

EDIT: I suck

[Aegypticus]

This one time, I was driving from Deerfoot to Crowchild on Glenmore. There was a checkstop on Glenmore right beside Chinook Centre. It was 1:30 pm on a Friday. I was on Glenmore for 45 minutes. I wish someone had warned me about that one.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Red-Mile-DJ

Let me show you guys my experience with this.

On Decemeber 20th I did a search on Twitter for #YYC

I was scrolling through the tweets when I came across this guy:

https://twitter.com/#!/gr8one60

He was tweeting check-stop locations in Calgary. Had been doing it for a few weeks. In fact, if you look at his twitter feed...he still is.

Anyway, I sent the following tweet to the Calgary Police, along with his twitter handle:

https://twitter.com/#!/RedMileDJ/sta...98703498276864

I got back the following tweet from the Calgary Police:

https://twitter.com/#!/calgarypolice...22908047278080

So there you have it. @gr8one60 is a loser and should be charge with some sort of obstruction or whatever. What a piece of crap. The police can't do anything...or won't.

Haha, I love how he tweets a checkstop location and ends it off with "don't drink and drive".

[Notorious Honey Badger]

I dont know whats worse: people who tweet warning about checkstops or people who think it should be illegal. Talk about a slippery slope.

[jayswin]

I wonder if twitter could ban his account for what he's doing?

[moon]

I don't know if the stats are out there but based on the accident stats that someone had in another thread who knows. Does anyone know of the % of DUI tickets given out at a checkstop versus in other ways i.e. stopped for speeding, stopped for erratic driving, accident? Especially the numbers for the really drunk and most dangerous group.

From my experience in terms of knowing people, reading stories and hearing from a cop friend tell stories it seems more likely that the really drunk guys are getting caught based on their own driving rather than checkstops.

It seems checkstops do more 24 hour suspensions than anything.

I guess any step that helps drunks get around police detection is good but it seems that this is likely to do very little to help the drunks get around police detection and to increase the risk to the public.

It seems much more likely that it is going to be used by the had two drinks at dinner and am worried about being .05 crowd than the got blitzed at the bar and am somewhere in the .01+ range group.

[HotHotHeat]

I understand the opposition, but if I had two drinks and need to get home, I'm going to avoid checkstops - not because I'm drunk, but because I don't need a cop breathing down my neck about whether I'm able to.

[RedMileDJ]

Originally Posted by flameswin

I wonder if twitter could ban his account for what he's doing?

I started looking into it, but couldn't find anything concrete.

I've heard of stories where the police use twitter information to charge people, so I don't see why the Calgary police can't do anything about this guy.

I should point out: the day after I sent that tweet to the police, he removed all images from his twitter account. I guess I was hoping they'd get a look at the guy and do something.

[To Be Quite Honest]

The paper tells you where a speed trap is. Or it use to. What's the difference Law wise not moral wise.

[moon]

Originally Posted by Red-Mile-DJ

I started looking into it, but couldn't find anything concrete.

I've heard of stories where the police use twitter information to charge people, so I don't see why the Calgary police can't do anything about this guy.

I should point out: the day after I sent that tweet to the police, he removed all images from his twitter account. I guess I was hoping they'd get a look at the guy and do something.

Because as they said he isn't doing anything illegal.

[gottabekd]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

Why? It's a deliberate obstruction of justice, and only serves to protect those who should not be driving in the first place. It should be illegal.

Telling people the location of some police officers around the city is not obstruction of justice.

[evman150]

Anyone else never heard the term checkstop before?

As for the tweets - pretty scummy, but how much different is it from radar detectors?