Police Close Streets In Trinidad to Steer Drivers to Checkpoint

On Saturday, those who told police that they were going to visit a relative were turned away if they did not provide the relative's phone number so officers could verify their claim, Hughes said.

Leaders at the American Civil Liberties Union, who have criticized Lanier's effort as heavy-handed, were in Trinidad on Saturday night. They questioned the statistics provided by police and said they estimated that 90 percent of cars were turned away.

"Our analysis is different from theirs," said Johnny Barnes, executive director of the ACLU's Washington office. "We think most people were turned away."

He said it became a joke among his workers when they saw police stop an ice cream truck. It was eventually let through.

"It's an ice cream truck," Barnes said. "I mean, ice cream."

Brian Forst, a professor of criminal justice at American University, said it is difficult to judge whether it was appropriate to turn away so many motorists.

"I'd be more concerned if they let in somebody who killed someone," Forst said. "They can't afford to have more homicides there, even if it comes at the pain and suffering of decent people. I can understand that calculus."

Residents of the Trinidad area said yesterday that they would have preferred the police presence in the neighborhood without the checkpoint. Some said it was easy to circumvent police by using other streets, an action that police apparently were trying to thwart last night.

"As cars came up, they made lefts and rights and went the other way," neighborhood activist Wilhelmina Lawson said. "I support them, and I understand what they're trying to do, but I think they're missing it by not sitting down and talking to the residents. We can help them much better if they talk to us."

Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) said he will hold a hearing Monday on how the checkpoints affect civil liberties. "Observing it reinforced my view it is not effective and reinforced my view it's harmful to police-community relations," he said.

Lanier sent an e-mail within the department Sunday praising officers for their work and calling public criticism "unfortunate."

"We are simply trying to reduce the opportunity for violent offenders to enter a neighborhood for the sole purpose of taking someone's life," Lanier wrote. "We also realize that we can carry out this mission professionally without depriving any law abiding resident of their rights -- most importantly their right to be safe in their own community."

Traffic stops are used as a crime-fighting tool in other cities across the country, especially in "hot spots" in which there are spurts of violence, according to a report released last month by the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum.

But unlike what has happened in the District, other police departments do not turn motorists away from an area during the stops, according to the report. Instead, some look for guns and drugs and make arrests. Others said they use it as a community outreach tool, handing out fliers saying that there has been violent crime in the neighborhood.

Police in Baltimore, where there has been a 36 percent decrease in homicides and shootings this year, said they attribute that to targeting violent criminals and improving relationships with members of the community.

"You lock up the baddest of the bad in part by working with people in the neighborhood," Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford said. "You look to people in the neighborhood to tell you who they are and where they are."