We were not surprised the Missouri House took a stand against sobriety checkpoints.DWI checkpoints, as they are more commonly known, are not popular. They do not engender goodwill. Critics dismiss them as another intolerable example of government overreach.More specifically, they are an infringement of constitutionally guaranteed liberty, allowing search and seizure actions by police without probable cause.That’s what a core group of conservative lawmakers argued last week before the House passed a budget that would prohibit the use of state funds for checkpoints, according to the Associated Press. The budget was sent to the Senate for its review.Sobriety checkpoints, like red-light cameras, have never been popular with a segment of conservative lawmakers who have tried for years to restrict or ban them outright. The debate over them is often peppered with references like “Big Brother” or “Nanny” or “Police State.”They also contend they aren’t as effective as other tactics. For instance, checkpoints don’t work as well as roving or saturation patrols because motorists can easily warn friends about where checkpoints are set up. Today there are apps and social media drivers can use to find out about the locations of checkpoints.This year the legislative effort is directed at a ban on the cameras and an elimination of funding for the checkpoints. Local law enforcement still would be allowed to conduct checkpoints with locally raised money.That concerns law enforcement officials who rely heavily on state funding to conduct the checkpoints. Without state revenue, the checkpoints are likely to be reduced or eliminated altogether.Police say if that happens they will lose a valuable deterrent in the fight to reduce drunk driving. Locally, sobriety checkpoints are used more as a public education tool than to make arrests. That’s the real value, not how many arrests can be racked up on a given night.We’ve driven through local sobriety checkpoints and haven’t found them to be overly intrusive. We’ve never been stopped for more than a minute or so. We don’t know how checkpoints are conducted in other parts of the state but they aren’t overly burdensome here.We haven’t witnessed any abuses or heard of any police overreach. They may not be universally liked, but they are tolerated.Here’s what we do know: Despite all of the attention devoted to the subject, drinking and driving is still a serious problem in our county and across the state. About one in four motor vehicle fatalities in our state involve a drunk driver.It’s clear there is still work to be done. Taking away funding for a tool that studies show reduces drunk driving by 20 percent and that law enforcement supports is shortsighted. It’s worse than that, it’s foolish.