Highway Interrogations in the USA?

This guy's blog says Texas DOT is now making highway surveys mandatory. Comments on the same blog mention similar highway interrogations with police officers acting as mollifiers/enforcers.

salcostello.blogspot.com...

Monday, October 03, 2005
Email I just received from reliable source...
1:30pm - Kathleen was stopped by TxDOT on Hwy. 183 in between Luling and Gonzales -- to do a 4 minute survey. They had a laptop computer. They wanted to know things like what County she was from, where she was going, for what purpose, when was the last time she got out of her car.

They were stopping every 4th car and the traffic was all backed up. They did not give her the option of not doing the survey. Conducted by Mark Surveying Team and were doing it for TxDOT. The had a big sign a few miles before you get to them "Warning, Highway Traffic Survey Ahead."

posted by Sal Costello @ 10/03/2005

Any thoughts on how horrendously this violates the privacy of people travelling in their vehicles? Notice that they are willing to delay traffic to get their information. (note: idling cars use more gas... Isn't there a gas crisis in the south?)

with my luck, I'd be arrested for refusing to submit.
I wonder if it would make the news, and what side would the media take?

While it may be a huge inconvenience, I don't think there is anything wrong with it, maybe they're just looking for a dangerous suspect?
Its no different than when police do traffic stops looking for seat belts or drinking drivers, or below-standard child car seats.

Now they do these where I live, so I'm just guessing they do them in the U.S as well.. correct me if I'm wrong though.

Although given the current gas crisis, it is a ridiculous that they do this on a highway rather than a slower residential road.



This is off-topic, and then again I am paranoid, perhaps they're secretly investigating a bird flu outbreak and finding out where anyone who may have been exposed has been and where it may spread further.
Now I'm just getting myself worried.

the vehicle is the easiest way to physicaly check citizens. the pole-leez can pull you over for just about anyreason or WILL find a reason. a state trooper once told me that there were 256 reason a car could be pulled over and his job was to know everyone of them.

just about everybody owns, rides in or drives a vehicle. what better way to police your citizenry than to have road check points. the supreme court has said that 'informational road blocks are ok..supreme court oks check points

check points at state lines?? city boundries?? offramps?? all in the name of saftey?? so much 'land of the free' more like 'land of the searched' but you whine 'it's a public roadway, and driving is a privlige so the state should be able to stop you when ever, where ever, for whatever.' that argument could be aplied to ANY PUBLIC PLACE.

here is a website the is a road block registry.........
its all about the money, control, creating fear..................creating fear of the govt...............

When they ask all those questions simply say "Not til you tell me where your going"
"Not til you tell me how long you have been in your car today"
"Not til you tell me how many times you got out of your car today"

They will get so mad they will begin making threats against you and possibly assault you..in which you just start laughing at them

I'm not surprised. Papers, please!

Seriously, that is a violation of your Fourth Amendment rights if they start searching you and you haven't done anything. It's none of their business where you're going!

Checkpoints, which force everyone on the road to pull over and be inspected are legal as long as everyone on the road is required to stop or there are stopped in a specific sequence. Every other car every fourth car whatever it just depends on the personnel available to staff the checkpoint and traffic congestion.

No violation of any Amendment rights when they do it that way and stick to the specific sequence.

It is still a violation of your constitutional rights.
Refusal to take a survey would not stand up in court.

Of course if they are giving away a free gift they would get volunteers.

Any thoughts on how horrendously this violates the privacy of people travelling in their vehicles?

Sounds more like a rumour than anything else. They found out via an email, like a chain-email, etc etc. They're making it out to be more than a simple road check.

amethyst
if they start searching you and you haven't done anything

They aren't searching anyone.

garyo1954
It is still a violation of your constitutional rights.

What right is violated??

I feel like it's a violation of your rights. I also live in texas and on a drive one night to Austin I got stopped by a state trooper and he came up to the passenger side of my car and asked me to step out. When I did I asked him what was the reason and he told me he'd let me know as soon as I got to the side of the road. 5 minutes later after circling my car, looking at my tags, talking to my friend on the passenger side of the car he came over to where I was standing and started asking me questions such as where was I going, where am I from, if I'm a student of a college/university, and if so which one, if I wore contacts, what were the reasons as to why I was going to Austin that night, and if I've ever been arrested or have any warrants out for my arrest. I answered the obvious questions like the arrests, warrents, student and college I went to, that I wore soft lenses, and where I was from, where I was going but that was about it. He then began to question me about my friend and I told him if there were no valid reasons for me to be pulled over at the side of I-35, I wouldn't answer anymore questions. So he looked at me for a little bit and thanked me for my "cooperation" and also wished me a safe trip. I got pulled over in Schertz by the way....and this isn't the first time where I get pulled over and asked questions for no apparent reason. It's happened while i've had my family in the car as well and on another time where my dad was with me.

I live in tx and if there was any substance to this story, it would have been all over the news one way or another rather quickly. TX highways have been in the news too much recently for something of this nature to have occured and NOT have been picked up by some news hound.
This is most likely a rumor or an email chain-letter that this guy came across.

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was going to try something like this by having the State Police put up roadblocks so they could conduct a survey. Someone in the media asked the head of the State Police about it and he said nobody said anything to him about it and that he wouldn't let his officers be used to do it, so it just went away.

KENSHIRO...go ahead and read my post again. I'm not saying that they have any roadblocks in place or that they have some stupid paper survey. If you want the name of the State Trooper, his badge, and the place he reports to I can give you that info just for verification of my story. It's not happening to EVERYONE so that's why the news really doesn't care. Besides, look at the whole karl rove thing about the CIA operative. Surprisingly enough no one is really covering that either..just to a certain extent.

I think this is just another attempt by our govt. to gather more information on the masses. Every day that goes by, we are giving in to more pressure from the govt. (and this is implying state and fed.) to surrender more personal info. The way things are going now, it won't be long untill they fill their databases with what they need to keep us under control. I wonder what if the driver refused in a polite way not to divulge his or her info.? Would they be cited for not obeying an officers order? And to bring it to another level if they are requested to appear in court. Would they be charged with comtempt of court? I feel that the offices actions are just another step in the direction of a communist state.

Highway checkpoints/telemarketing gone too far!

"It was like a telemarketer that you couldn't hang up on," Under sheriff John Bayne told the newspaper.
Sgt. Bob Enney said the deputies' assistance to the organization involved stopping motorists at the sites along Colorado Highway 119 for "surveys" on any drug or alcohol use. Surveyors also requested that motorists submit to breath, blood and saliva tests.
Enney said several hundred motorists were tested, and some later complained.

www.nworeport.com...

So now we can't even go out for a drive without our privacy being invaded. Any chances of lawsuits comming about because of this?
Institute for Research and Evaluation
is behind this. Has anyone heard of them before? Are they just a front for the CIA?
What's next? Mandatory strip searchs before entering your local library?