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Benefits and Practicalities of On-the-Scene Breath Alcohol Testing (From International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety Seventh - Proceedings, P 317-320, 1979, Ian R Johnston, ed. - See NCJ-73856)

NCJ Number
73872
Author(s)
R B Marshak
Date Published
1979
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The development of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) van units, increased communication with judges and establishment of a DWI Rehabilitation Program in Shelby County, (Tennessee), as successful countermeasures against the failure of the police and the courts to detect and confine drunken drivers are described.
Abstract
A study concluded that the failure to detect and retain drunken drivers in Shelby County was due to three problems: 1) probable cause for the police to stop a DWI suspect was vague, 2) light penalties were meted out by the courts, and 3) the county lacked any comprehensive rehabilitation program for arrested DWI's. Consequently, three specific countermeasures were taken to deal with the problem areas. In addition to placing DWI testing vans in operation and initiating a mandatory rehabilitation program for all convicted DWI's, a seminar was conducted for local judges on techniques for handling alcohol problem individuals in the court system. A DWI squad composed of trained policemen from both Shelby County and the city of Memphis began operating the DWI vans in June 1973. By 1976, the average time between the time a van was called until completion of DWI tests was 28 minutes; and arrests made for DWI were 62 percent patrol-related and 38 percent accident-related. This compared with 10 percent patrol-related and 90 percent accident-related before the inception of the program. Also, in 1976 alcohol-related fatalities comprised 36 percent of all fatalities which contrasts with 50 to 55 percent of alcohol-related fatal accidents in Memphis and Shelby County before the operation of DWI vans. Since the establishment of a special court to handle all DWI-related cases, guilty pleas are received in more than 90 percent of the cases, and the conviction rate is better than 95 percent. In addition, the program was adopted by other local governments in Tennessee.