Still, it's good to see no deaths. I hope the Legislature sees the good work they can do here.

KLBJ AM in Austin had an interview yesterday witha police chief from the Fort Worth area who said his officers no longer offer breath tests at all. They train officers to draw blood through an arrangement with a local doctor and hospital, then once certified, those officers meet the code requirements. So DWI arrestees are asked to give blood, and if they refuse, a search warrant is obtained in every case. He said their conviction rate on filed cases is 100%. He mentioned they've had 2 or 3 cases in which the judge refused to sign a warrant, and a few in which the results came back under the legal limit. IMO, that's all to the good. Finding a lack of PC or an under-the-limit test during the investigation is far better than having to file and go through a pretrial hearing or filing on a person who really may not be intoxicated. Plus, blood-only testing uncovers drug-related intoxication as well as alcohol.

Sounds like these guys are really doing good work.

Collin County had 8 blood draws on Friday and Saturday nights. I'm told that DWI arrests were down a bit.

quote:

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Originally posted by WHM:
KLBJ AM in Austin had an interview yesterday witha police chief from the Fort Worth area who said his officers no longer offer breath tests at all. They train officers to draw blood through an arrangement with a local doctor and hospital, then once certified, those officers meet the code requirements. ...

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That practice is the one at issue in the suppression case mentioned about 10 posts before yours.

He is the Deputy Chief of the Dalworthington Gardens Department of Public Safety. He was in Austin as a speaker at the Central Texas DWI Conference that was hosted by Austin PD.

This link will take you to the conference agenda. DWI conference

The decision-makers in Fort Worth and Austin should have looked to the Fourth Amendment rather than the Transportation Code. Here is the issue as framed by the Supreme Court in Schmerber: "whether the means and procedures employed in taking [the] blood respected relevant Fourth Amendment standards of reasonableness." The answer was that everything would be ok so long as the conditions for drawing blood do not "invite an unjustified element of personal risk of infection and pain." That standard seems to be broad enough to include use of any reasonably qualified persons, regardless of their label. Maybe this issue needs to be addressed in the warrant itself. Language/directions found there should serve to preclude any argument that the evidence was illegally seized.

I recall reading about Parker County's no refusal program earlier this year. http://www.tdcaa.com/node/2078

What surprised me most about it is that their jury deliberated for two hours with the BAC evidence.

Finally got all of our blood results back from Memorial Day Weekend:

9 blood warrants - average BAC 0.15
4 consent draws - average BAC 0.18
17 breath tests - average BAC 0.15

One blood warrant was after an alcohol-related crash (no SBI)

4th of July:

3 blood warrants - results pending
2 consent draws - results pending
4 breath tests - average BAC 0.20

Three alcohol-related crashes that night (no injuries)

For those counties that don't do it as SOP, who is planning on a Labor Day weekend exercise?