For students drinking and driving on the Hill, the Syracuse Police Department and the Syracuse University Office of Public Safety might have a surprise waiting around the corner.

After a driver believed to be intoxicated hit a student Feb. 21 outside Shaw Residence Hall and the occurrence of several other driving while intoxicated arrests or accidents during the first semester, police checkpoints are on their way to the university area, said Syracuse police spokesman Lt. Joe Cecile.

Director of Public Safety at SU Marlene Hall has been speaking to police officials about the possibility of checkpoints since the beginning of the semester, although it was only recently decided that the checkpoints would be pursued. Cecile could not reveal when the checkpoints would take place or their exact location.

At a checkpoint each car is stopped, paperwork on the car is checked and the driver is examined to see if he is driving under the influence, Cecile added.

Hall and police had been in talks about the possibilities of the checkpoints after the university put in a request for additional officers to run the checkpoints, she said. During the fall semester, SU asked for, and police participated in, DWI watches — patrols that look for drivers in the university area displaying actions of drunken drivers, Hall said.

This semester members of the administration reacted favorably to the prospect of checkpoints on campus or in the campus area, and the request was put into the police, she said.

“We need to take some more steps,” Hall said. “First we have to talk about prevention, but some of the people you approach about it will not listen, so then we need to talk about enforcement.”

Checkpoints have been successful throughout the nation, Cecile said.

“They do seem to be affective,” he added. “Whether you can curb drunk driving with checkpoints is unknown, but we usually come up with a couple.”

The officers assigned to the checkpoint will not be taken from the normal patrol but will be additional officers in the area.

Funding for the checkpoints will not come from the university but rather from fines levied against convicted drunk drivers, Cecile said. Funds derived from fines are rolled over into an account used to pay for drunken driving patrols and checkpoints.

Jenelle Ferri, a junior broadcast journalism major, is often the designated driver when she and her friends go out at night, and she thinks it is a great idea to have checkpoints.

“I don’t want to get hit by a drunk driver,” Ferri said. “Maybe more kids will think before getting behind the wheel. If a professor says that he is going to have pop quizzes during the semester, more kids are going to go to class because there is a consequence to not going to class. If students know they can get caught drunk driving, they may think twice or use a designated driver.”

Dan McCarthy, a junior television, radio and film major, said there have been times that he has driven to a bar, had a couple of drinks but has been in control, and he is worried that a checkpoint could mean him being tested at over the legal limit.

“I’m not against it, but I will be way more careful,” McCarthy said.

Michael Hudson, a fifth-year architecture major, agrees that a few people may be caught by a checkpoint, but it will be inevitable that some students will alert their friends as to the location of the checkpoint and how to avoid it. All things considered, though, he said, checkpoints are a good idea and will have an affect on drunken drivers.

“They should keep doing it like the bar raids,” Hudson said. “Do a few right in a row for a while. That will make people think twice.”

Published on March 18, 2003 at 12:00 pm