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Since the United States Supreme Court held in 1966 that forced blood draws are constitutional, forced blood draws have been common. According to a recent article in the Washington Times, police officers are being trained in both Idaho and Texas by Arizona’s law enforcement phlebotomy coordinator in drawing blood from motorists who are arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving. The purpose of the training program is an attempt to decrease the number of DUI / Drunk Driving trials. While the forced blood draw procedure by police officers will reduce the number of motorists who refuse a breath, blood or urine… Read More

In a recent medical board discipline case against a Northern California doctor, a California Appellate Court held that a DUI / Drunk Driving conviction is not needed to impose professional discipline on medical doctors. Merely being arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving can form the basis for medical discipline. It is important to note that in the Northern California case, the disciplined doctor had multiple DUI / Drunk Driving arrests that did not result in convictions. While the medical discipline case applies to doctors, this may set a precedent for other professionals licensed by the State of California as well.

According to a recent Washington Supreme Court decision, a driver who drove in both Oregon and Washington can be charged for DUI / Drunk Driving in both states. The court held that there was no double jeopardy violation because both prosecutions in each state are for seperate violations. One violation occured in Oregon and the other violation occured in Washington. The driver, after being followed by Washington State Patrol officers into Oregon, was arrested by Portland police after the Washington State Patrol officers called for assistance.

According to the California DMV, in 2007 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests rates had a range from 0. 3 to 2.9 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests per 100 licensed drivers. California’s statewide average rate was 0. 9. The five lowest county rates were San Francisco (0.3), Contra Costa (0.6), Santa Clara (0.6), Los Angeles (0.7), and San Mateo (0.7). The five highest county rates were Glenn (2.9), Sierra (2.5), Tehama (2.3), Colusa (2.1) and Inyo (2.0). Among larger counties, San Bernardino had the largest increase in DUI / Drunk Driving arrests with 11.1%. Among smaller counties the largest percentage increase… Read More

According to the USA Today, 11 states now require all people convicted of first time DUI / Drunk Driving to install ignition interlock devices. The US Congress may take up this issue this fall that will mandate states require all people convicted of first time DUI / Drunk Driving to install the devices in order to receive Federal Highway Funds. Any state that does not meet this requirement risks losing Federal Highway Funds. Reportedly, if all states meet the requirement, then there will be nearly 1 million ignition interlock devices installed in the US each year. If each device costs… Read More

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… Read More

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… Read More

Many states are now requiring all driversconvictedofDUI / DWI / Drunk Driving to install ignition interlock devices. In 2005, New Mexico was the first state to requireinstallation ofignition interlock devicesfor all drivers convicted of DUI / DWI / Drunk Driving. Currently, there is a bill pending in the California legislature to fund a pilot program to require installation of ignition interlock devices for convicted drunk drivers in Los Angeles, Alameda and Sacramento counties. One of the difficulties of requiringconvicted drunk drivers to install ignition interlock devicesis that often times more than one person drives a vehicle belonging to a person… Read More

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, almost 74% of drivers who wereconvicted for DUI / Drunk Driving in 2006 (most recent year data available) were first time offenders (drivers who have not beenconvicted for DUI / Drunk Drivingduring the previous ten years). Only 6.8% of driversconvicted for DUI / Drunk Driving in2006 had 3 or more prior convictions during the previous 10 years. Overall, DUI / Drunk Driving arrest in California increased by 3.4% in 2007following an increase of 9.4% in 2006.