Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
S.T.O.P.
S.T.O.P. Controversial method used in Dubuque to catch drunken drivers. Federal grants for STOP, the Serious Traffic Offender Program, required police to perform a minimum of five random traffic checkpoints annually at which all motorists were required to stop. The City of Dubuque obtained a grant to operate the program for five years in 1984, although it could decline each year to renew the grant.
In 1989 the city council voted 4-3 to keep the program despite arguments that it violated the spirit of the Constitution. Results of the program have included the arrest of two or three drunken drivers at each roadblock in addition to apprehending drivers operating vehicles without their licenses or automobiles with equipment violations.