An upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the constitutionality of setting up random checkpoints to search for illegal drugs will not affect Iowa law enforcement procedures, officers said.

The Supreme Court decided Tuesday to review a federal appeals court ruling involving motorists’ Fourth Amendment rights in an incident in Indianapolis in which police detained motorists for about three minutes while they searched their vehicles for illegal substances.

Maj. Denny Marritt, field operations officer for the Iowa State Patrol, said his department has participated in traffic checkpoints before but never specifically to search for drugs.

“We routinely do checks, but normally it’s for equipment violations and to make sure they have a valid driver’s license,” Marritt said. “They occasionally lead to drug traffic arrests.”

In order to conduct a vehicle checkpoint in Iowa, a county attorney and the public must be notified a couple days before the checkpoint is to take place, said Sgt. Rob Hansen, public information officer for the Iowa State Patrol.

Also, he said, local police are contacted to get involved, a plan must be submitted beforehand, and an after-action report must be filed.

“Our vehicle checkpoint system has stood the test of time, and we based it off of the Supreme Court,” Hansen said.

Although the State Patrol does not use drug-specific checkpoints, it often uses probable cause or some other indication of reasonable suspicion to search for illegal substances, Marritt said.

Sgt. Randy Kessel, information officer for the Ames Police Department, said Ames officers have never participated in a checkpoint to search for illegal drugs, but they are trained to use probable cause when deciding whether to conduct a drug search.

“We’ve never employed the tactic of drug checkpoints as an interjection vehicle,” Kessel said. “Our officers just use probable cause.”