According to the Orange County Register, a study done for the year 2009 by Investigative Reporting Program at University of California-Berkely with California Watch found that more cars are seized than DUI / Drunk Driving arrests are made. Impounding of cars generated approximately $40,000,000 in towing fees and police fines. This revenue is divided by cities and towing firms. Police officers received about $30,000,000 in overtime pay for the extra DUI / Drunk Driving enforcement. Also, during 2009, police seized more than 24,000 vehicles at checkpoints. This represents an increase of 53% from 2007. Apparently, DUI / Drunk Driving sobriety checkpoints result in the discovery of thousands of unlicensed drivers in the state of California.

As I blogged about a while back, faulty lab results were discovered in toxicology reports on blood and urine tests from a private company contracted with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Toxicology labs routine test for alcohol and drugs in DUI / Drunk Driving cases. The county originally thought only a few cases may be affected. However, officials ordered a review of 675 cases dating from March, 2009 through December, 2009. So far, 11 people have been released from Vista jail as a result of the review. Hundreds of more cases are still under review. The private lab notified the Sheriff’s department last summer as a result of an inexperienced lab worker. The San Diego Sheriff’s Department no longer uses the services of the private lab. It has yet to be determined how many DUI / Drunk Driving cases have been affected.

On December 30, 2009, a bill was introduced in the California Assmebly to permanently revoke the drivers’ licenses of third time convicted drunk drivers. The bill would eliminate the current 10 year prior period and change it to life time. It would also give judges discretion to revoke the driver’s license for any person convicted for a third DUI / Drunk Driving charge even if the prior offenses occured over 20 years ago when DUI / Drunk Driving was not considered as serious as it has become. People who pled guilty many years ago had no knowledge that by doing so, the convictions may come back haunt them 20 to 30 years later.

According to the LA Times, the California Highway Patrol arrested 246 people for DUI / Drunk Driving statewide on Christmas Eve, 2009. On Christmas Eve, 2008, the CHP arrested 167 people for DUI / Drunk Driving. This represents a 47% increase in Christmas Eve DUI / Drunk Driving arrests from 2008 to 2009. In Los Angeles County, the CHP arrested 71 people for DUI / Drunk Driving on Christmas Eve, 2009, compared to 30 people arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving on Christmas Eve, 2008. This represents a whopping 136% increase in Christmas Eve DUI / Drunk Driving arrests from 2008 to 2009. It wouldn’t suprise me that for the upcoming New Year’s Eve, there is even a greater increase in DUI / Drunk Driving arrests by the CHP compared to New’s Year Eve, 2008, both statewide as well as in LA County.

According to the California Highway Patrol, there were 1,314 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests statewide by CHP officers during the 2009 Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. The number of arrests were down slightly from 2008 when the California Highway Patrol made 1,397 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests statewide. San Diego county California Highway Patrol officers made 94 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests during the 2009 Thanksgiving Holiday. This number was also a decrease from 2008 Thanksgiving Holiday when there were 108 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests made by the San Diego county California Highway Patrol. As was well publicized, there were many DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints and roving police patrols throughout California during the 2009 Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.

California passed a new tough pilot ingnition interlock device law that would require DUI / Drunk Driving offenders (including first time offenders) to install an ignition interlock device on all vehicles owned or operated by the offender. This pilot project law is limited to Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Tulare counties. The law is to take effect July 1, 2010 and is set to expire January 1, 2016. There are certain requirements before the law actually takes effect such as the California Department of Motor Vehicles will be required to obtain, by January 31, 2010, non-California funding for the costs of the pilot program. The pilot law also requires another California law to go into effect on or before January 1, 2010 that allows for repeat DUI / Drunk Driving offenders to obtain a restricted license provided in part they install an Ignition Interlock Device (IID).

There have been some major changes in California DUI / Drunk Driving laws in 2009. The California DMV is now responsible for administering mandatory ignition interlock devices (IID) that are to be installed in vehicles owned or operated by a driver convicted of driving with a suspended license due to a prior DUI / Drunk Driving conviction. Also, Courts may require first time offenders convicted of DUI / Drunk Driving to install ignition interlock devices (IID) who reportedly have a blood/breath alcohol level of 0.15% at the time of the arrest. Finally, police may impound a vehicle of a driver who is on DUI / Drunk Driving probation and is driving with a blood/breath alcohol level of 0.01% or higher.

According to the most recent year the California Department of Motor Vehicles records are available, LA County had the most DUI / Drunk Driving arrests for 2007 in California with 41,286. This represents 20.3% of all persons arrested in 2007 for DUI / Drunk Driving. Southern California’s 5 counties (Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside) accounted for 48.3% of all persons arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving in California for 2007. The California county with the lowest number of DUI / Drunk Driving arrests in 2007 was Alpine county with 19.

According to the American Beverage Institute, DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints are costly and ineffective. Citing California statistics, in 2008, out of 1,000,000 motorists stopped at DUI checkpoints, only one-third of one percent were charged with DUI / Drunk Driving. On the other hand, publicizing the locations of DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints may have a deterrent effect on drinking drivers who are aware of the checkpoints and their locations. I wonder if a study will be done that measures the amount of time each motorist is stopped and use those results in the analysis of whether or not to conduct checkpoints.

Recently, the California Supreme Court held that competent evidence of variations between people’s breath alcohol levels and blood alcohol levels is admissible to show that breath tests results can overstate the actual blood alcohol level of a driver in DUI / Drunk Driving prosecutions. This scientific principal is called “partition ratio variation” which has been well documented in the scientific community for decades. This variation is caused by all breath testing machines being programmed to assume everyone has the same variation formula. In reality, this formula is only based on an average and does not take into account an individual’s own ratio of breath alcohol levels compared to blood alcohol levels. Looks like credible science is making its way back into California courts.