Sometime soon, drunken driving suspects in Kane County will have a new choice: Get your blood-alcohol level measured in a breath, blood or urine test, or have your blood drawn involuntarily.
On No Refusal Weekend the option of refusing to take a test will not be available. At least not to drivers arrested by St. Charles, Batavia and Geneva police and Kane County sheriff’s deputies.
Kane County State’s Attorney John Barsanti announced the proposal Wednesday. He refused to say what weekend the program will be instituted. The idea was brought to his attention by First Assistant State’s Attorney Clint Hull, who read about its use in other states.
Illinois law requires people suspected of DUI to submit to testing. Prosecutors are frustrated by advice given by defense lawyers, many of whom recommend on their Web sites that people refuse to take a test if they think they are legally impaired. A case without blood-alcohol evidence is hard to get a conviction on, Barsanti said.
Currently, if you are a first-time misdemeanor DUI arrestee older than 21 and you refuse to take a test, the state will immediately suspend your driver’s license six months. If you take a test and are over the limit, you typically have your license immediately suspended for three months and, if convicted, receive a one-year suspension.
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Traveling around Memphis, you probably don’t think much about terrorists, but law officers do.
It was front and center stage at a round up Saturday.
Operation Sudden Impact included police, deputies, FBI, drug agents, and even gang units all working together to see how crimes may be linked.
“People committing crimes down in Crittenden County might have some kind of warrant, and we might be looking for them in Shelby County. We in turn feed that information into state police, which can give us a national and international nexus if one exists,” says Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell.
He says terrorists usually have other links and because Memphis is a distribution center, it has to be especially on guard. That includes the waterways.
The U.S. Coast Guard in Memphis was a part of Saturday’s round-up, checking a boat on the river.
“We look at everything, the safety of the tow boat in general. We also check out the crew members, just to make sure there is nobody hiding out on the tow boat, felons, criminals etc.,” says Lt. Timothy Martin of the U.S. Coast Guard in Memphis.
They say sharing information and building relationships is a big step in fighting back against those intent on harm.
The Sheriff’s Department says 332 people were arrested, 142 of whom are were fugitives.
Hundreds of dollars were seized and drugs recovered, and 1,292 traffic violations were handed out.
They are determining if and when they plan another round-up.
They all came together to find terrorists and ended up giving out 1,292 traffic violations. I can’t find any reports of a single thwarted terrorist plot. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough, or maybe they’re looking too hard. There is a great video talking about how people doing drugs and gang members are terrorists here.
Sometime soon, drunken driving suspects in Kane County will have a new choice: Get your blood-alcohol level measured in a breath, blood or urine test, or have your blood drawn involuntarily.