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District of Columbia police plan to stop cars and question drivers in the Trinidad neighborhood in an effort to stop a string of shootings.

Twenty-two people have been killed so far this year in the 5th police district, which includes Trinidad. On Friday, there was a triple slaying in the northeast Washington neighborhood.

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Drivers will have to show identification proving they live in the neighborhood, or explain why they are in the area. Pedestrians won't be affected.

Police chief Cathy Lanier says authorities are focusing on cars because there have been a number of recent shootings from or into vehicles.

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D.C. police will seal off entire neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and kick out strangers under a new program that D.C. officials hope will help them rescue the city from its out-of-control violence.

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At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn’t live there, work there or have “legitimate reason” to be there will be sent away or face arrest

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Lanier has been struggling to reverse D.C.’s spiraling crime rate but has been forced by public outcry to scale back several initiatives including her “All Hands on Deck” weekends [All Hands on Deck weekends were weekends where over 150 extra officers were on duty: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1398066] and plans for warrantless, door-to-door searches for drugs and guns.

Under today’s proposal, the no-go zones will last up to 10 days, according to internal police documents. Front-line officers are already being signed up for training on running the blue curtains

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“I think they tried this in Russia and it failed,” [Shelley Broderick, president of the D.C.-area American Civil Liberties Union and the dean of the University of the District of Columbia’s law school] said. “It’s just our experience in this city that we always end up targeting poor people and people of color, and we treat the kids coming home from choir practice the same as we treat those kids who are selling drugs.”

The proposal has the provisional support of D.C. Councilman Harry “Tommy” Thomas, D-Ward 5, whose ward has become a war zone.
“They’re really going to crack down on what we believe to be a systemic problem with open-air drug markets,” Thomas told The Examiner.
Thomas said, though, that he worried about D.C. “moving towards a police state.”

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Stung by an outbreak of violence, including eight killings last weekend alone, police are taking the unusual step of establishing vehicle checkpoints in a crime-ridden neighborhood in the nation's capital.

Starting Saturday night, officers will check drivers' ID and turn away any who don't have a "legitimate purpose" in the area - a plan that has drawn swift criticism from civil liberties groups.
"The Constitution and the Bill of Rights should not become the next victim of the street violence," said Johnny Barnes, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union for the National Capital Area. "This plan will treat every resident of that area the way criminals are treated."
The checkpoints come as police try to combat a spike in the number of homicides, which rose 7 percent in the city in 2007 after several years of decline.

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Officers will stop motorists traveling through the main thoroughfare of Trinidad - a neighborhood of mostly tidy two-story brick rowhouses that includes Gallaudet University and is near the National Arboretum.
Police will ask motorists to show proof that they live in the area. If they do not have proof, drivers must explain whether they have a reason to be in the neighborhood, such as a doctor's appointment or a church visit.
Police will only search cars if they observe the presence of guns or drugs, officials said. Anyone who does not cooperate will be arrested.
The checkpoints will be enforced at random hours for at least five days, though they could be extended to 10 days, police said. Pedestrians will not be subject to the checkpoints.

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On Thursday, city officials downplayed the significance of the initiative, noting that police have used various checkpoints in the past.
"It's not unlike a sobriety checkpoint or a traffic-safety checkpoint," Hughes said. "This time, it's to make sure violent crime is deterred as much as possible."
Responding to the threat of a legal challenge, interim D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles cited a similar case involving New York City police, who once stopped motorists in the Bronx at random hours, mostly in the evening, to curtail drive-by shootings, drugs and robberies. Neighborhood residents and commercial vehicles were allowed to pass, while others were turned away.
A federal appeals court ruled in 1996 that those police tactics were constitutional, saying that the checkpoints "were reasonably viewed as an effective mechanism" to reduce drive-by shootings.
In a Supreme Court case from 2000, however, justices struck down random roadblocks used in Indianapolis to screen people for illegal drugs, ruling that they were an unreasonable invasion of privacy. The high court's majority concluded that law enforcement alone is not a good enough reason to stop innocent motorists.

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Civil rights groups, lawmakers and residents fear the move is another step toward creating a police state in the District, but city officials said they have covered all the legal bases.
"It's not going to be random," said D.C. interim Attorney General Peter J. Nickles. "We're not picking on people. I don't anticipate [a lawsuit]. But if somebody wants to sue, the courthouse is open."
D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson, at-large Democrat, said the plan, which will be enacted by an executive order, is illegal and susceptible to abuse.
"I support increased police presence to reduce crime, but to stop innocent people, require identification, and require everyone to explain themselves is unlawful," said Mr. Mendelson, who head's the Council's public safety committee.

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The first zone will be set up Saturday. Police did not provide details on where it will be or when the restrictions would go into effect, but a spokeswoman said one of the zones will be on the 1400 block of Montello Avenue [map of potential location: http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/6127/blockkf2.jpg].

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Chief Lanier said that the safe zones are less restrictive than drug-free zones, which allow police to disperse as few as two people seen congregating, and that residents shouldn't criticize them without looking at similar checkpoints set up for special events such as protests.
Neighborhood checkpoints have been used in New Orleans - during the crime spree after Hurricane Katrina - and in high-crime areas in New York City and Lawrence, Mass., roughly 30 miles from Boston.

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"It's not just pushing the envelope, it's carrying the envelope," said ACLU legislative counsel Steve Block. "We expect that once the first people are arrested or turned away, they're going to come knocking on our door and there will be a lawsuit."
This year lawmakers and civil rights groups have voiced strong concerns about a plan to consolidate the city's 5,200 closed-circuit cameras on a single network, issuing assault rifles to patrol officers, and an initiative by police to ask residents if they can search their homes for illegal weapons.
Residents on Wednesday gave mixed reactions to the most recent plan, saying they want to see the police engage community members more often.
"It's something, it's better than nothing," said Thalia Wiggins, 24, a resident of Trinidad. "If you're not doing anything wrong then you shouldn't be upset about it."
A group of Trinidad residents who declined to give their names said they want to see police walking the block and talking with residents rather than questioning law-abiding citizens.
"Back in the old days police knew everyone," one man said. "And they knew everybody that was doing something wrong."

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Reaction from the blogosphere was swift and overwhelmingly critical of D.C.’s plan to barricade crime-ravaged neighborhoods, many describing the District as a “police state.”

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Lanier gave no indication Thursday of backing down. The bottom line, she told WTOP, “is we’ve got to do something.”
The first checkpoint will be established this weekend in Trinidad, with a likely expansion to neighborhoods in Southeast Washington, the chief told a caller to the radio station who described the idea as “great.”
“The plan is available for all areas of the city,” Lanier said.

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Pedestrians, however, will not be stopped, a fact that left DCist.com’s Sommer Mathis “stunned by how silly this plan appears to be.”

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Originally posted by Grand_Moff_Gav
Well, if it saves lives.

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Originally posted by botankus
Now if they could only set up checkpoints in the gang-infested areas of my hometown, and keep people from getting out.

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Originally posted by inimalist
mandatory cavity searches for using the sidewalk would too