Council Grills Lanier, Nickles on Checkpoint

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and interim Attorney General Peter Nickles yesterday defended using checkpoints to prevent violence after a series of shootings left the District's Trinidad neighborhood shaken in recent months.

Under sometimes harsh questioning from a D.C. Council committee, Nickles and Lanier said they signed off on the plan only after careful legal analysis.

"I am comfortable with the constitutionality of this situation," Nickles said during a lengthy public hearing by the council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary. The panel's chairman, Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), has been a critic of the checkpoints, saying they engender ill will among residents and infringe upon civil rights.

D.C. police put a checkpoint on Montello Avenue on June 7 and ran it randomly over six days, asking drivers why they wanted to enter the neighborhood and allowing only residents and those with legitimate business there to enter. Officers reported that more than 700 vehicles were allowed through and that 46 were turned away. The American Civil Liberties Union, which monitored some of the activity, said at times that nine of 10 motorists were being denied entry.

Lanier said investigators had information that the killings in Trinidad involved gunmen driving in from other neighborhoods. "We had very specific knowledge of what the threat was in Trinidad," she said. While the operation was in effect, there were no shootings in the area, officials said.

Still, the program had gaps. While police tried to funnel traffic to the neighborhood through the checkpoint, there were many other streets allowing cars into Trinidad. And because pedestrians were not being stopped, drivers who were turned away could park their cars and walk into the neighborhood.

Residents appeared divided over the plan. Some testified yesterday that they did not consider it onerous to show identification if it quelled the violence, while others said the checkpoints were ineffective and humiliating.

"We are tired of having to listen to gunfire. We are tired of having bullets pierce the sanctity of our homes," said Kathy Henderson, a former leader of the advisory neighborhood commission in the area. She said she was launching a petition drive in support of Lanier.

Concerns about constitutional intrusions were "academic discussion," Henderson said, adding that residents felt that "our rights are being violated every time people descend on our community and commit crime."

Robert Vinson Brannum, another neighborhood leader, said stops and searches are becoming a part of American life, citing airport screenings and metal detectors in public buildings.

He said residents have a lower expectation of privacy in their vehicles than at home, adding, "I do not believe this program violates anyone's constitutional rights."

But others said the program was an intrusion and ineffective.