Effective July 1st, 2011, Wyoming's new driving under the influence law will make some significant changes to current DUI laws. The new law requires that motorists pulled over for suspected drug or alcohol use submit to breath, blood or urine tests, when requested by the police. Prosecutors and law enforcement around the state have been working on how suspected drivers will actually be tested for alcohol or drugs. This blog post is dedicated to educating Wyoming drivers about the new DUI law, and why the new law could be a civil libertarians’ worst fear.
Although the purpose of the new law is to crack down on drunk driving – especially among repeat offenders – the Wyoming ACLU has some concerns over how the new law will be enforced, as well as the constitutionality of the remotely communicated search warrants. To be sure, drunk driving is reprehensible and is not condoned by the ACLU of Wyoming.
The new law replaces the word “request” with the word “require” when referring to the suspected drivers’ submission to a blood, breath or urine test. In other words, law enforcement officers are obligated to force blood or urine tests on unwilling motorists. Supporters of the new law are adamant that this is necessary in order to prosecute repeat DUI offenders; however, current law already makes a “refusal” admissible in evidence at trial and comes along with an automatic suspension of their driver’s license.
Coming after potentially drunk people with needles just seems like a bad idea! Rep. Bunky Loucks, R-Casper questioned this measure during the legislative session, “What are you going to do? Are you going to strap people down
View the Original article
No comments:
Post a Comment