These Essex County Police Departments Will Run DUI Checkpoints Ahead Of Labor Day

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Six local police departments in Essex County will receive a state grant to run a “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” traffic campaign leading into Labor Day.

Police across New Jersey will be conducting patrols and sobriety checkpoints in a search for drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The annual crackdown will take place from Aug. 19 to Sept. 7.

The New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety has awarded more than $511,580 in grants to 106 local law enforcement agencies for this year’s campaign.

The following police departments in Essex County will each get $7,000 in state funding: Bloomfield, East Orange, Fairfield, Millburn, Nutley, and Orange.

See the full list of grants here.

Nearly 100,000 summonses were written during last year’s crackdown, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office reported:

“During New Jersey’s 2025 Labor Day Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign, participating law enforcement agencies made 1,612 impaired-driving arrests and issued 6,228 speeding summonses, 3,192 seat belt citations, and 1,526 cell-phone use citations. Officers also issued 88,599 additional summonses for other motor vehicle violations.”

In New Jersey, 186 people were killed in crashes involving an alcohol- or drug-impaired driver in 2024. Impaired driving was a contributing factor in nearly 27 percent of the state’s fatal crashes during that period, according to the most recent statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Attorney General Jennifer Davenport urged people to arrange a sober ride, designate a driver or “stay where you are” if they’ve been partaking.

“There is never an acceptable reason to drive impaired,” Davenport said.

WHY ANNOUNCE CHECKPOINTS AHEAD OF TIME?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the primary goal of sobriety checkpoints is to serve as a deterrent – although they also catch some impaired drivers in the process.

“Although sobriety checkpoints remove impaired drivers from road, the primary purpose of checkpoints is to deter driving after drinking among the general population by increasing the perceived risk of being caught and arrested,” the NHTSA says.

“To do this, checkpoints must be highly visible, publicized extensively, and conducted regularly, as part of an ongoing sobriety checkpoint program,” the agency adds.

There’s also another reason for announcing checkpoints ahead of time, legal experts say: to keep them constitutional.

Several New Jersey-based law firms have penned blogs on the topic, including the Law Offices of Christopher L. Baxter:

“Typically, the U.S. Fourth Amendment prohibits a police officer from stopping your vehicle without a reasonable basis for suspecting any illegal activity. But with DUI checkpoints, police officers will stop all vehicles. So, how is this legal? A 1990 case called the ‘Michigan Department of State Police vs. Sitz’ determined that the harm that drunk drivers could cause is greater than the harm or inconvenience of stopping a driver. After this important ruling, the Supreme Court left each state to decide whether the sobriety roadblock should be legal.”

For a DUI checkpoint to be lawful in New Jersey, police must follow specific protocols, according to the Law Office of Steven Ellman:

• Give advance notice
• Officers must follow a predetermined formula, such as stopping every third or fifth vehicle
• There must be proper supervision and planning
• The checkpoint must include clearly marked police cars, signs, lighting and uniformed officers
• Stops must be brief, unless officers develop reasonable suspicion that a driver is impaired

When a driver arrives at a DUI checkpoint, they may be asked to provide their license, registration and insurance information. They may also be put through a field sobriety test if suspicion arises, according to the Aiello, Harris, Abate Law Group.

Police are not required to publish exact locations ahead of time.

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