It's against the law for police to set up a narcotics checkpoint — but a pretend checkpoint is fine, the Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled.
They were driving to a music festival in far southwestern Colorado when they saw the big signs posted along the road.
“Narcotics checkpoint, one mile ahead.”
“Narcotics canine ahead.”
The passenger tossed something out the window, and they just kept going. That was only the petty offense of littering — a little crime — but it was the start of something big.
It’s against the law for police to set up narcotics checkpoints to check whether any randomly passing motorists happen to have illegal drugs.
But it’s not illegal for the police to pretend that’s what they’re doing, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. […]
I’m not sure what the laws are in Texas, but I’d presume that they’re similar. As a non-drug-user, I suppose it doesn’t apply to me anyway, but it’s interesting from a civil liberties perspective.