Blood Tests Increasing During Texas DWI Arrests

Search warrants to take a blood sample used in fight against drunk driving in Texas.

Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using a controversial tactic in their fight against drunk driving. Arresting officers are relying on search warrants to demand blood samples from motorists suspected of driving while intoxicated in Texas.

The effort is in reaction to motorists who refuse to submit to a breath test to check blood alcohol content. Such refusal is permissible under state law, though it hinders prosecution of Texas DWI cases because of a lack of evidence. The Texas DWI law states that a blood draw is appropriate for testing motorists who have a prior DWI conviction who have caused an accident with injury. However, both county sheriff’s departments and municipal police departments have implemented ‘no refusal’ programs in their crackdown on drunk driving in Texas. Judges are available for the issuance of search warrants that forces motorists to comply with the request for a blood sample.

Central Texas Police Chief Art Acevedo has used such a tactic to check for driving while intoxicated in Austin. In 2005, the Fort Worth suburb of Dalworthington Gardens was the first to train officers in blood draw procedures. Harris County has used evidentiary warrants about 300 times during the past 16 months.

The American Civil Liberties Union has questioned the programs from a number of perspectives. Besides being an expansion of what the law outlines, the group has found that warrants are often rubber stamped without probable cause and they are a violation of privacy as protected by the constitution. The actual person and facility in which a blood draw can be taken is also clearly outlined by Texas law because it is considered evidence in a criminal case. In apparent contrast to the law, in some cases police officers are being trained to perform blood draws in jail facilities rather than using a phlebotomists or trained nurses in hospitals.

Police say that the blood draw policy is part of an on-going campaign against Texas DWI, and that it is gaining acceptance from law enforcement agencies and prosecutors across the state.

Have you been arrested for TX DWI?