Roadblocks
On May 10, 1990, fifteen officers conducted a roadblock on Interstate 15 about two miles south of Nephi. Several drug arrests resulted from this roadblock. Three convictions from this roadblock were appealed. The Utah Appellate Court ruled on March 15, 1991, that the roadblock was unconstitutional because it was “not developed by politically accountable officials, and because there was no indication that the authorization process involved any balancing of Fourth Amendment interests, law enforcement interests, or an assessment of the effectiveness of the roadblock in meeting those interests.”
At this time all roadblocks in Utah were put on hold. With assistance from the Statewide Association of Prosecutors and the Utah Attorney General’s Office, legislation was drafted which passed the 1992 legislative session. Following this legislation, the procedures for conducting roadblocks, or “administrative traffic checkpoints” as the new law officially refers to roadblocks, changed dramatically.