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Attorney creates flyer to help drivers through DUI checkpoints

It reads: "I remain silent, no searches and I want my lawyer."

By Alexandra Gratereaux

BOCA RATON, Fla., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A Florida attorney is taking heat for his controversial flyer meant to help people navigate DUI checkpoints.

Warren Redlich of Boca Raton, Fla., has been distributing a flyer, advising drivers stopped at the checkpoints to keep their mouths shut and show the flyer in the window. It reads: "I remain silent, no searches and I want my lawyer."

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The flyer also includes space to show a driver's license, registration and insurance card.

The flyer adheres to driving laws in over 12 states. To the surprise of many, the document works as law enforcement officials are letting these drivers go once the flyer is shown.

Redlich is promoting the flyer and how to best use it via Youtube, where the video has garnered over 2.4 million views.

Groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving oppose the flyer, concerned that it's encouraging intoxicated drivers to get away without consequences. "Sobriety checkpoints and law enforcement are the key thing in stopping drunk driving," Colleen Sheenhey-Church, president of MADD, told CBS. Her son Dustin was struck and killed in an drunk-driving crash 10 years ago.

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"Sobriety checkpoints are advertised so people know where they are," she said. "They are not there necessarily to make arrests. They're there to deter people from driving drunk."

DUI checkpoints became legal in 1990 under a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. Studies have shown they reduce alcohol-related accidents by about 9 percent.

Redlich disputes their effectiveness, saying he is tired of cases in which drivers are wrongfully arrested after being stopped at a DUI checkpoint.

"What the checkpoints require is that you stop, and typically that you show the police your driver's license. You're doing that" with this flyer, he said. "What you're not doing is going beyond what is required in a checkpoint."

"There are genuinely drunk drivers that need to be taken off the road, but unfortunately the way the system works, a lot of innocent people get caught up in it," he said. "The idea of this is to help people protect themselves by not rolling down their window and asserting their rights."

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