FARGO (AP) - Law enforcement agencies here like sobriety checkpoints and plan to continue them this year.

But critics believe the checkpoints are an illegal search and seizure, and lead to too few arrests for their cost.

"It really is a waste of time because it's not targeted enforcement," said Sarah Longwell, managing director of The American Beverage Institute.

Local law enforcement agencies don't think so.

"Our primary goal is to educate and to deter impaired drivers," said Cass County Sgt. Bruce Jorgensen.

Fargo police Sgt. Carlos Nestler said he believes the combination of checkpoints and saturation patrols, which are also targeted at catching people driving under the influence, is working.

"I've noticed that since we've been doing this, we see more cars left at bars overnight," Nestler said.

But checkpoints are also having a negative impact on those who go out to restaurants, Longwell said.

"Checkpoints scare people from the moderate, responsible, social drinking that's legal," she said.

Longwell called sobriety checkpoints part of a "flawed mentality" that should be scrapped for roving patrols which can target several traffic safety problems such as speeding, distracted driving and drunk driving.

Some states, including Minnesota, don't allow sobriety checkpoints, despite the U.S. Supreme Court upholding their constitutionality in 1990.

Fargo police and the Cass County Sheriff's Department use federal grant money to put on the checkpoints. The money covers overtime and also funds saturation patrols.

Fargo received an $11,000 grant from the state Transportation Department in fiscal 2007, but spent only $3,333 of that funding on checkpoint overtime, Nestler said.

The department's power shift, a fourth shift which helps with projects, is central to keeping down checkpoint costs, Nestler said.

"Last year, we didn't even spend all our overtime money for them because we used so much of just the power shift for it," he said.

Since October 2004, Fargo police have conducted 31 sobriety checkpoints that have yielded 100 arrests. Nestler said the checkpoints that don't yield any arrests are still a positive result.

"People are being more responsible," he said.

Fargo police Chief Keith Ternes has said he would like his department to conduct checkpoints more often.

"I simply don't have the staff to do them on a weekly or biweekly basis," he said.

The manpower required to conduct checkpoints has deterred West Fargo police from putting them on at all, but the department steps up enforcement four times a year with the help of federal grants, said Assistant Chief Mike Reitan.

The Cass County Sheriff's Department joined other local agencies last year in conducting the checkpoints when Sheriff Paul Laney took over the department.

With the help of the North Dakota Highway Patrol, Cass County conducted five checkpoints in 2007 that led to 11 arrests, Jorgensen said.