Hearing on Policing Checkpoints

Council Member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) holds a hearing on the city's controversial police checkpoints today and the concerns the policy has raised about civil liberties. Last week, the Metropolitan Police Department ended its checkpoint in the Northeast neighborhood of Trinidad. The checkpoint, in which police questioned motorists trying to enter a block on Montello Avenue, had been set up in response to a recent spate of violence in the neighborhood.

Mendelson, along with leaders of the ACLU and other activists have expressed concern about the policy's potential infringement on civil liberties. Others, however, have said such extreme efforts are necessary to curb the violence that has plagued Trinidad and other parts of the District.