During the recent holiday season, police in Austin, Texas made more than 200 arrests, mainly for incidents related to drunk driving. In many of these cases, some of the individuals who were arrested also had children with them in their vehicles.
Information was recently released to the public through the 2017 holiday season “no refusal” initiative. This initiative was designed to have individuals operating motor vehicles submit to forced blood draws in the event that they refuse to submit to field sobriety test, breathalyzer test, etc. This initiative is now being implemented every single weekend rather than during holidays where there are generally increased risks of drunk driving.
Once police obtain bench warrants from municipal court judges, they can then secure an immediate search warrant during the period in which this initiative in is effects. This means that they will then be able to execute forced blood draws on drivers who refuse various forms of inebriation tests.
During the holiday initiative, which took place from December 15th through January 2nd and lasting from 3:00 PM until 5:00 AM each day, a total of 210 arrests were made, and all were for DWI-related offenses. A breakdown of each arrest, the details of which were made available by police, revealed that some of the arrests included consent breath and blood samples, warrants for blood searches, and even more enhances charges such as class A misdemeanors and felony DWI charges, especially in instances where children were also present in the vehicles.
A press advisory announcing the launch of the “no refusal” initiative stated that it’s less about making as many arrests as police can and more about keeping unsafe drivers off the road and keeping the public safe. Furthermore, it also ensures that they have evidence in regards to every blood alcohol content arrest and that they can also effectively prosecute those who put others in danger.
Thank you for visiting Gabriella Young’s blog. I am a top Austin criminal defense attorney. I write to inform locals about news, laws and current events.