Police using fake drug checkpoints

MAYFIELD HEIGHTS — Police in the Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Heights know they’re not allowed to use checkpoints to search drivers and their cars for drugs. So they’re trying the next best thing: fake drug checkpoints.

Police in the city of 19,000 recently posted large yellow signs along Interstate 271 that warned drivers that there was a drug checkpoint ahead, to be prepared to stop and that there was a drug-sniffing police dog in use.

There was no such checkpoint, just officers waiting to see if any drivers would react suspiciously after seeing the signs. Authorities say that four people were stopped, with some arrests and drugs seized.