Highway Safety Group Wants to Have More DUI Checkpoints Held in Malibu

• Members Learn that Everything They Want Costs Money

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

Members of A Safer PCH, the grass roots highway safety group, learned at a recent meeting that the California Office of Traffic Safety funds an average of 15 DUI checkpoints in the City of Calabasas each year, while Malibu has three and Agoura Hills is host to two. All three areas are served by the Lost Hills Sheriff Station.

Several members of the groups were invited to observe at a recent DUI checkpoint event in Calabasas on Las Virgenes Road. “It was great,” ASPCH founding member Susan Saul said. The checkpoint netted two DUIs and two felonies. Participating deputies reportedly wrote 50 tickets for a variety of violations.

“[A checkpoint] helps educate people,” Saul said. “It makes you think.”

Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station traffic officer Sgt. Phil Brooks told the group that the station asks the OTS to “give us as many [checkpoints] as they can,” but that funding cuts have meant that recent checkpoints have not been fully staffed.

“We’re working with bare bones,” Brooks said of the current financial state in the LASD.

Asked how much money would be required to fully staff the checkpoint events, Brooks replied that an additional $1500-2000 would cover the cost of four additional deputies per eight-hour event. According to Brooks, the OTS provides approximately $12,000 in grant money for each checkpoint event.

“We need to look for new grants,” Saul suggested.

ASPCH members said that the Calabasas checkpoint offered an opportunity for them to observe the apparent lack of communication between the LASD and the CHP. Saul recounted watching multiple CHP cars pass through the checkpoint at full speed, sirens on and lights flashing, while sheriff’s deputies speculated on the nature of the response.

“We don’t communicate,” Brooks said, adding that the two branches of law enforcement use different radio frequencies.

Volunteers on Patrol, or VOP, was another issue discussed at the meeting. Brooks said that the Lost Hills station is “waiting for the pieces to come together.” However, the City of Malibu has reportedly not yet stepped up to the table to purchase a vehicle and uniforms.

City Councilmember Lou La Monte told the group that he is currently “looking into it.”

“It’s kind of surprising that Lost Hills had never talked to the public safety commission about this,” Councilmember Laura Rosenthal said. “We just started the conversation. We could have a dozen more bodies on the beach.”

Community volunteers would not participate in active service, but could act as eyes and ears for the station, and provide a deterrent for law breakers.