Roadblock announcements required by law

Why do law enforcement officials announce when and where roadblocks will be held?
That is the question a number of local residents have asked following the latest series of driver license and sobriety checkpoints held by both the Tennessee Highway Patrol and McMinnville Police Department.
Prior to the roadblocks, public announcements were made by the two agencies in the Southern Standard telling motorists the planned locations and time frames for the roadblocks.
The reason, according to Highway Patrol Sgt. Billy Prater, dates back to a court case from 2001 which reshaped the highway patrol’s policy when it comes to checkpoints. Specifically, the case came from the Tennessee Supreme Court after it heard an appeal by Larry Allen Hicks, who had been stopped at a roadblock and arrested for drug possession after a drug dog walked around his vehicle.
Hicks was later convicted of possessing drugs but appealed the decision all the way to the state Supreme Court. It was there, the high court ruled that stopping a person is, in essence, a form of arrest since it curbs, no matter how shortly, the person’s liberty. And, in the case of roadblocks, the stops are made without probable cause.
In making its decision, the Supreme Court said to clear the hurdle of making such stops, it must be shown unlicensed and drunk drivers are a hazard to the general public by traveling the roads. This is why roadblock announcements have certain wording which says they are being conducted to protect the public from unqualified and intoxicated drivers.
The roadblocks also have to be conducted in a voluntary manner, thus explaining why the time and location of the roadblocks are published, giving a motorist advanced knowledge so they can simply not travel those roads if they choose.
McMinnville Police Sgt. Mark Mara, who noted the city’s policy mirrors that of the highway patrol, said publishing such information generally does not change a thing.
‘I believe we could publicize the exact time and the exact location of the checkpoints and the same people would still roll into them,’ said Mara, noting policy requires a generalized time and location as both the city and highway patrol will move or float their roadblocks from one published location to another during their checkpoint hours.
According to Sgt. Prater, the court’s overturning of the Hicks case, a ruling which came down Sept. 11, 2001, has prompted agencies to mold their policies to make sure any cases coming out of the roadblocks will withstand the appeals process.
Announcing roadblocks is generally made the week leading up to the event and the notification can sometimes cover as much as a week, meaning advertised roadblocks could happen anywhere within a seven-day period and involve several different roads. Locally, the announcements generally just include a couple of roads.