CavemanLawyer
Senior Member
What the heck is that supposed to mean? No one is ever under an obligation to talk to the police whether it is a checkpoint stop, a traffic stop, or you got caught red handed disposing of a body. (the exception would be the crime of failure to identify, but they'd need PC to arrest you for something first.) You are free to ask them if you are free to go and act accordingly if their answer leads you to believe you are in custody. But the checkpoint stop can be constitutionally sound and so they are free to detain you as long as they need to to check your license, registration, insurance, and in doing so see any active warrants. If they uncover probable cause of any other crimes they are free to turn the stop into an investigative detention of that. Your silence isn't going to prevent them from exercising the point of the checkpoint, if anything it is just going to extend your encounter with law enforcement.
The original poster is worried about them finding warrants during the checkpoint stop. Being silent or otherwise protesting the stop is not going to stop them from discovering the warrant(s) and arresting him for them.