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State v. Levitt12/18/2001
. at 540 (emphasis in original).
In light of Hicks, we conclude that the drivers' license checkpoint in this case was an unreasonable seizure, violative of Article I, Section 7 of the Tennessee Constitution. First and foremost, the required showing of a compelling state interest was not made. "Only when the State makes the required showing, as it has previously done with sobriety checkpoints, may courts accept the presence of the compelling interest and proceed to further analyze the roadblock under this decision and Downey." Id. at 528.
However, even had the State established a compelling interest, we would still have no hesitation in determining that the roadblock here failed to pass constitutional muster, based on its failure to be established and operated in a manner that minimized its intrusiveness on individual freedom. The Hicks court made it clear that drivers' license roadblocks are subject to the same requirements for constitutional reasonableness as sobriety roadblocks. Id. at 537 n.13. According to the court:
he most important attribute of a reasonable roadblock is the presence of genuine limitations upon the discretion of the officers in the field. Two facts are critical to finding that the officers' discretion on the scene was properly limited: (1) the decision to set up the roadblock in the first instance cannot have been made by the officer or officers actually establishing the checkpoint, and (2) the officers on the scene cannot decide for themselves the procedures to be used in operating the roadblock. In all cases, therefore, the State must show that some authority superior to the officers in the field decided to establish the roadblock, particularly as to its time and location, and that the officers adhered to neutral standards previously fixed by administrative decision or regulation. To be clear, these factors are so essential to a reasonable roadblock that the absence of either of them will necessarily result in the invalidation of the stops. Id. at 533 (citation omitted).
The roadblock here did not meet these minimal standards for constitutionality. There was no meaningful prior administrative authorization or approval for the establishment of the roadblock at the Riverside Drive location on the afternoon of April 5, 1997. Troopers Parsley and Shearl formulated the plan for the roadblock together, and had a location picked out, before approaching Sergeant Murray at the service station to obtain his approval. Although Sergeant Murray's permission may have technically complied with the Downey requirement that the party responsible for establishing the roadblock be different from the party responsible for approving it, we cannot conclude that mere acquiescence to an already formulated plan satisfies the reasonableness requirement. It is also clear that the officers in the field, who were totally unsupervised at the scene, chose the time of the roadblock, the procedures to be employed, and which vehicles were to be stopped. Further evidence supporting the unreasonableness of the roadblock includes the lack of advance publicity, the failure to have traffic cones or warning signs in place, and testimony indicating that Trooper Parsley used the roadblock as a subterfuge to question at least one driver about his drinking. See generally, id. at 534-38.
Had the defendant stayed in his lane, to be stopped after Trooper Parsley concluded his encounter with McLain, our inquiry would be ended, since there would be no doubt that he would be entitled to the suppression of evidence obtained as the result of a seizure at an unlawful roadblock. See State v. Keith, 978 S.W.2d 861, 865 (Tenn. 1998). However, the defendant drove onto the paved shoulder t
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