Allen County, Iola law enforcement fight sobriety test refusals with search warrants
A significant increase in drunk driving arrests and suspect refusal of sobriety tests in Iola and Allen County has prompted area law enforcement to find new ways to deal with the offense that kills more than 10,000 Americans every year.
Historically, when someone suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol was stopped by law enforcement, an occurrence that jumped 54 percent from 2009 to 2010 in Iola, they were allowed to decline a sobriety test, whether it be blood, breath or urine. However, doing so would result in revocation of a driver’s license for one year and a $120 traffic citation. It also made it dramatically more difficult for state and county prosecutors to get a DUI conviction, said Allen County Sheriff Thomas Williams.
“If a person refused (to submit to a sobriety test), we were stuck with what limited evidence we had,” he said. “Now, we’re not going to stop at that point.”
As of July 1, the Allen County Attorney’s office, in collaboration with local area law enforcement, including the sheriff’s department and the Iola, Moran and Humboldt police departments, initiated a DUI refusal policy, instructing officers to submit a request for a search warrant to retrieve blood from a DUI suspect.
“Upon doing so (law enforcement) will present that document to the court and the court will
determine if sufficient probable cause exists,” said Allen County Attorney Wade Bowie.
Spearheaded by his office, Bowie said the change in policy is in response to a “statewide phenomenon” of more and more people refusing to submit to sobriety tests as well as the recent spike in DUIs.
“The trend across the state is refusal. This is our way of combating that,” he said. “If you won’t give us your blood, then, if we meet a certain criteria, we’ll take it.”
Williams said “it’s a dramatic change in the way we deal with DUIs.”
Even if a warrant is requested late in the night or early in the morning, Bowie said Allen County judges will be ready and available to review the requests and ultimately grant a court-ordered search if sufficient probable cause exists.
Suspects who continue to refuse a sobriety test after a warrant is issued could be forcefully restrained until qualified medical personnel are able to retrieve the blood.
“The suspect will be given a reasonable opportunity to supply their blood,” he said, adding that a search warrant is a court order and failure to comply with such an order has an entire different set of violations attached to it. “The court will typically look at some sort of sanction for refusing. It’s no different than someone showing up at your house or my house with a search warrant. We can refuse it, but it’s still a court order.”
Williams said continuing to refuse a sobriety test only makes the legal situation worse for the suspect.
“If that person travels down that road he’s just looking at a road that branches out into really bad choices,” he said.
Although the new policy is a measure to get more DUI offenders off the road, some see the policy as an encroachment on basic human rights.
“It has always been recognized that a person has some general right to bodily integrity, not to be forced to pee or not be forced to have your blood taken,” said Jay Norton, an Overland Park attorney who specializes in DUI defense. “We recognize that as basic human dignity.”
Laws intended to curb crimes have the potential to impact every citizen, not just criminals, he said.
Bowie said he expected the policy to be attacked by some, however, “we’re prepared to deal with those attacks,” adding the attorney’s office as well as the participating law enforcement agencies are operating within the boundaries of city, county, state and federal law. The warrant requests aren’t simply rubber-stamped, he said.
“(The search warrant application) has to pass (Constitutional) muster,” Bowie said. “Everything in this business is fact-driven. In my experience, the judges read everything and they’ll kick them back if they don’t meet the criteria.”
Williams said prior to going ahead with the new DUI refusal policy, he spent a significant amount of time weighing concerns similar to Norton’s.
“I like to say the United States Armed Forces protects our freedom. Police officers protect the … rights you have as an individual,” he said. “So we wrestled with whether this did go beyond what we were comfortable with. But we’re going to do this in a professional, straight-forward manner. At this point, I don’t have any concerns.”
Both Williams and Iola Police Chief Jared Warner said they hope they never have to use the tactic, but it’s a necessary policy.
“It’s just another tool in the tool belt,” Warner said.
At the end of the day, public safety is the main concern for Allen County authorities, Bowie said.
The DUI refusal policy was modeled, in part, after similar policies in Douglas and Lyon counties.
Charles Branson, district attorney for Douglas County, which implemented its DUI refusal policy one year ago, said it was typically suspects with prior DUI offenses on their criminal record that made life difficult for the local prosecution.
“(DUI offenders) know the ropes,” he said. “They’ve been advised by attorneys to refuse all tests to make a DUI prosecution more difficult.”
DUI conviction rates have increased since implementing the policy, Branson said, though he could not provide a solid figure to support the statement.
Robert Novak, Lyon County traffic prosecutor, said DUI conviction rates in Lyon County have also increased.
“It’s been really helpful,” he said. “We’re able to better convey to a jury that there was a blood level of .08 or higher.”
The DUI refusal policy, Novak said, has also made it easier to get guilty pleas as well as plea agreements. However, like Branson, Novak could not substantiate the statement with real numerical data.
As of Wednesday, the Allen County DUI refusal policy had yet to be
utilized.
