After Police Officer Andrew Kelly and Detective Kevin Spellman refused to take breath tests following recent fatal car accidents, it took seven hours and 5 1⁄2 hours, respectively, for blood tests to be administered to determine their blood alcohol content. Such delays can often hurt the prosecution of DWI cases. Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, who has campaigned for stiffer drunk driving penalties, says the system needs to change.
The process for blood-testing dangerous drunk drivers must be streamlined.
Currently, the law allows cops to draw blood from a suspect within two hours, under the “deemed consent” law.
But that all changes when a suspect refuses a test.
Under current guidelines, only if the suspect causes a serious injury or death can prosecutors get a warrant from a judge to force a test. Obviously, time is of the essence and the police must contact our office as quickly as possible.
Unintended delays can occur when the NYPD responds to secure an accident scene and calls for the Accident Investigation Squad to respond to crashes where serious injury or death has occurred or is likely.
When a police officer is the suspect, other delays often occur. Those accidents involve Internal Affairs Bureau investigations, which can result in a further unintended delay of getting a judge’s order.
That can mean the difference in getting a viable blood sample indicating the level of alcohol or drugs in the suspect’s system.
At the hospital, there are even more problems. Staff there are often reluctant to help the cops obtain a blood sample based on purported privacy concerns.
We are currently working to educate them about the hospital’s legal obligation as well as the suspect’s legal rights.
When I was elected District Attorney in 2003, I ran on a platform to get tough on DWI by seeking jail time for repeat offenders. We’ve succeeded in leading the city in incarceration for DWI offenders by implementing tough policies and working with the NYPD to build strong cases.
But more needs to be done.
My fellow DAs and I are working closely with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to determine what we can do to streamline the DWI testing process. While many ideas are under consideration, one specific example is training all officers to administer “refusal warnings” without waiting for the NYPD’s Highway or the Accident Investigation Squad.
This would speed up the process, as once the intoxicated suspect has officially refused, the officer can start the process of obtaining a compulsory order.
As recent incidents have shown, we need to act quickly to ensure that prosecutors, police and medical professionals are working in a coordinated and cooperative manner on these cases.