According to the LA Times, 1,424 people were arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving in Los Angeles County between December 18 and December 26, 2009. The number of DUI / Drunk Driving arrests during the same period in 2008 was 1,416. Of the total number of arrests in Los Angeles County, the California Highway Patrol arrested 236 people for DUI / Drunk Driving. I’m pretty confident that since the number of DUI / Drunk Driving arrests were almost the same from 2008 to 2009, there will be a much greater increase in the number of arrests during the New Year’s Holiday weekend. Almost all police agencies are showing a dramatic increase from last year and I’m sure police agencies in Los Angeles County will not want to lag behind the rest of the state.

As reported previously in this blog, some states are training police officers in drawing blood in DUI / Drunk Driving cases in order to help streamline DUI / Drunk Driving prosecutions. A recent ruling by an Arizona Appellate Court in Tuscon upheld police officers practice of drawing blood from suspects at the scene of DUI / Drunk Driving arrests. The court turned away the constitutional challenges that were raised in appeals where the blood draws were done by the police. The court held that the police officers were trained phlebotomists and the procedures they used were reasonable. Arizona has become a leading state in the training, use and practice of police officers drawing blood in DUI / Drunk Driving cases. As reported previously, Arizona is training law enforcement agencies in other states on police officers drawing blood at the scene of arrests.

According to the Denver Legal News Examiner and many other news media outlets, the Colorado Springs Police Department crime lab discovered that 82 blood samples taken since January, 2009, were found to have lower blood alcohol concentration levels than initial test samples showed. Now, over 1,000 blood samples are being retested for accuracy. Prosecutors are already contacting defense attorneys for past clients may have been effected by the new discoveries. The Colorado Revenue Department has already restored at least 3 driving privileges who have been convicted of DUI / Drunk Driving based on faulty results. Among the Colorado government authorities who are investigating what went wrong are the Bureau of Investigations and the Police Internal Affiairs departments.

Police in East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania, arrested a 22 year old man this past weekend for DUI / Drunk Driving after he was found asleep in his moving buggy. The horse drawn buggy was moving slowly, at a walking pace, as it was straddling the center line. The sleeping driver/rider was given a breath test with the results being 0.18%, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08% in Pennsylvania. I can see the defense now-the horse was driving the buggy! The alleged sleeping driver was just along for the ride. I wonder if the horse was tested for alcohol and/or drugs. Apparently, the horse was driving the buggy and sleeping passenger straight down the road.

The New York State Assembly passed a bill yesterday that would make it a felony DWI to drive while intoxicated with a child in the vehicle. The bill would also require first time convicted offenders to install an ignition interlock device (IID) in their vehicles. This bill is quickly moving through the New York legislature as it could be passed by the New York Senate and sent to the governor for signature this week. Many sources are saying that if this bill goes into law, New York will have the toughtest DUI / Drunk Driving laws in the nation. To date, ignition interlock devices are now used in some form in 47 states.

According to the New York Times, in 2008, 37,695 people were convicted of drunk driving in New York.

As a result of a northern California man having numerous lifetime DUI / Drunk Driving convictions prior to his most recent arrest, a northen California State Senator is proposing legislation to have the driver’s license revoked after a person is convicted of multiple DUI / Drunk Driving convictions. In California, the law used to consider prior DUI / Drunk Driving convictions within 5 years of a current offense to be considered a prior. Subsequently, the law was changed to 7 years. A few years ago, there was a movement to change the law to consider all prior DUI / Drunk Driving convictions in a person’s lifetime to be considered a prior. However, there was a compromise in the California legislature which resulted in the law being changed again to what is currently a 10 year widow for prior DUI / Drunk Driving convictions to be considered a prior in a current DUI / Drunk Drivng charge.

Recently, the US Supreme Court declined to review a DUI / Drunk Driving Virginia case where the police stopped a suspected drunk driver based on a tipster call to police but the Virginia Supreme Court threw out the driver’s conviction. The reason why the conviction was tossed was because after receiving the tip, the police followed the car and observed no traffic violations but stopped the driver anyway and arrested the driver for drunk driving. The Virginia courts held there was no resonable suspicion (probable cause) of criminal activity to justify the stop. Some people argue that this is a good decision because the police shouldn’t be able to stop someone based on an unsubstantiated tip. Otherwise, any tipster can just call the police and complain about another driver for no reason other than the tipster doesn’t like or wants to get even with another driver.

Many states are cracking down and charging people with DUI / Drunk Driving who are riding on non-conventional motorized things after they have been drinking. Recently, a Minnesota Man pled guilty to drunk driving after crashing a motorized La-Z-Boy. The chair was powered by a lawnmower engine. Lawnmower engines sometimes have 1 1/2 horsepower. The chair had a stereo and cup holders. After leaving a bar, the rider crashed the chair into a parked vehicle but was not seriously injured. Apparently, the rider had a blood alcohol level of .29. While we have seen a number of cases in California when people arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving are on non-conventional vehicles, the 2 elements the state looks for in cases like this are if the thing is powered by a motor and was the thing driven anywhere on public property.

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, in 2007 there were 192,213 administrative per se actions. An administrative per se action is a suspension or revocation proceeding which is triggered after a driver is arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving. Of the total number stated, 76% were for first offender actions which also included zero tolerance as well. In fiscal year 2007/2008, there was an increase of 5.1% from the previous fiscal year in admin per se actions. Chemical test refusals increased by 2.9% in 2007. However, the number of DMV admin per se refusal actions had decreased by 5.2% from 1997-2007. During the first 14 1/2 years since the “zero tolerance” law for minors was enacted (1/1/94), 232,147 suspension actions have been taken by the California DMV.

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, 5.3% of all California drivers have one or more DUI / Drunk Driving convictions on their record from the period of 1997-2006. This statistical conclusion is based on the requirement that DUI / Drunk Driving convictions stays on a driver’s record for 10 years. Up until a few years ago, 7 years was the length of time a DUI / Drunk Driving conviction stayed on a driver’s record. However, there was a movement to maintain for life on a driver’s record all DUI / Drunk driving convictions. A compromise was reached in the California legislature on 10 years in which a DUI / Drunk Driving conviction stays on a driver’s record for which the prior conviction can be alleged in a new DUI / Drunk Driving arrest.