No-Refusal DWI Crackdowns: Every Weekend For The Next Three Years
Every holiday weekend, it seems, the Harris County District Attorney's office puts out a release touting a "No Refusal Weekend," where law-enforcement sets up locations targeting drunk drivers.
Normally, DWI suspects who refuse to take a Breathalyzer (as attorneys always prefer) are taken downtown and processed, and if a blood test is deemed necessary, the paperwork is filed for a warrant.
In the no-refusal weekends, a judge is on site to approve warrants and a nurse is handy to take the blood. You're screwed.
And now, it appears, the county is about to announce a federal grant that will allow it to fund no-refusal weekends every weekend for the next three years.
No one is talking about it publicly, but the grant is expected to be on the Commissioner's Court agenda for next week's meeting, or possibly the week after that.
The DAs office will be able to set up at least one location somewhere in the county every weekend, where suspected drunk drivers will be shown the express lane to conviction.
That's bad news for drunk drivers. It's good news, of course, for sober drivers who have to share the road with drunk ones.
It's not known whether Harris County will follow the footsteps of Montgomery County, which on Labor Day instituted a way to get around the state law banning roadblocks that stop every car, not just those suspected of being driven by drunks. They saturated a specific area with cops looking aggressively for any and all traffic violations and stopped pretty much whoever they wanted.
Normally, DWI suspects who refuse to take a Breathalyzer (as attorneys always prefer) are taken downtown and processed, and if a blood test is deemed necessary, the paperwork is filed for a warrant.
In the no-refusal weekends, a judge is on site to approve warrants and a nurse is handy to take the blood. You're screwed.
And now, it appears, the county is about to announce a federal grant that will allow it to fund no-refusal weekends every weekend for the next three years.
No one is talking about it publicly, but the grant is expected to be on the Commissioner's Court agenda for next week's meeting, or possibly the week after that.
The DAs office will be able to set up at least one location somewhere in the county every weekend, where suspected drunk drivers will be shown the express lane to conviction.
That's bad news for drunk drivers. It's good news, of course, for sober drivers who have to share the road with drunk ones.
It's not known whether Harris County will follow the footsteps of Montgomery County, which on Labor Day instituted a way to get around the state law banning roadblocks that stop every car, not just those suspected of being driven by drunks. They saturated a specific area with cops looking aggressively for any and all traffic violations and stopped pretty much whoever they wanted.
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