Articles
Tough DUI law Sparks Debate in DC
Controversy has been building in Washington DC over the district’s harsh DUI law. The highly-debated DUI law gives police the authority to arrest a person on drunk driving charges if they have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) above 0.01 but below 0.08, if the suspect appears to be intoxicated. The District, like most areas in the nation, considers 0.08 percent blood alcohol the point at which one is considered legally intoxicated. The DC police have made a number of high profile arrests in cases where the suspect had a BAC below the legal limit.
Police chief, Charles Ramsey, and his agency are being accused of abusing their authority and making erroneous DUI arrests. For the second time this week, the police chief was asked to explain to the DC Council the reasoning behind arresting drivers with a BAC below the legal limit. Earlier this week, Ramsey said he was confused about why the Council was considering a revision of this law. He believes his police force has a legitimate right and good cause to make these DUI arrests. Ramsey has called for an aggressive defense of the police agency’s actions in DUI arrest cases.
The Attorney General, Robert Spagnoletti, has joined Ramsey in defending the district’s current DUI law. “There is no evidence to suggest that this [law] is a big problem in the District of Columbia. This system works. The number of deaths declining suggests we’re doing it right,” said Spagnoletti while testifying before the DC Council.
Last week, the Council voted to change DC’s DUI laws, bringing them closer to the laws in surrounding areas. This revision will only affect DUI court rulings and will not affect the police authority to arrest any individual they feel is impaired by drugs or alcohol. This means that those wrongly charged in DUI cases will be forced to spend months of time and money fighting DUI charges they should not have received in the first place.
A number of people have already gone through the tremendous headache of fighting wrongful DUI charges. One Virginia woman, 45-year-old Deborah Bolton, was arrested for a DUI offense with a BAC of 0.03 percent after drinking one glass of wine with dinner. She spent five months fighting the DUI charges. The case was not prosecuted.
Many people are pondering the purpose of having DUI laws which allow a person to be arrested on DUI charges when it is unlikely they will be prosecuted.
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