Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 30, 1994 TAG: 9408300086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On the heels of tougher state drinking-and-driving laws comes a directive from the state that some police fear will make it tougher to enforce the new laws.
During the past two weeks, area police learned that weeklong training courses offered for Breathalyzer operators at regional criminal justice academies will be taught only in Richmond beginning in January.
The change is being made because the state will replace existing Breathalyzers with new state-of-the-art machines - about the size of a desktop and weighing 35 pounds - that are harder to transport than the current models.
To Peter Marone, assistant director of the Division of Forensic Science, it makes more sense to send officers to Richmond than to try to put 25 machines in trucks and ferry them across the state to the regional academies.
What the plan didn't take into account was whether police departments and sheriff's offices could afford to send officers to Richmond. If the classes are moved to Richmond, each agency will have to pay for transportation, lodging and meals for officers they send.
Several sheriffs and police chiefs in Western Virginia estimate it will cost them as much as $700 for each officer sent to the weeklong basic training course. Their current budgets, which run through June, do not include this extra training cost.
Training at local academies didn't involve those costs because officers generally commuted from home.
Jonny Butler, deputy chief of the Radford Police Department, fears that the extra expense and logistics of sending new officers to Richmond will mean fewer trained Breathalyzer operators. This could reduce the number of drunken-driving arrests because trained Breathalyzer operators wouldn't always be available when needed.
``The gains that we have made in reducing highway fatalities will be lost,'' Butler said.
Other chiefs expressed similar fears, especially considering the new DUI laws that set a 0.08 blood-alcohol level for most drivers and 0.02 for drivers younger than the legal drinking age of 21. And, beginning Jan. 1, breath tests will be the only option for drivers who are stopped on suspicion of drunken driving. The option of having a blood test done at a hospital will no longer be available.
In a letter to state Sen. Malfourd ``Bo'' Trumbo, R-Fincastle, Butler wrote:
``One of the governor's planks was that he would not allow any requirement of state government to impose any financial burden on a locality without providing funds.''
Marone said Friday that as word has gotten around about the proposed training change, letters and inquiries from chiefs and sheriffs have been trickling in. His department is looking at alternatives that would make the change less cumbersome and costly. Options being considered include reducing the 40-hour class from five days to four, looking for discounts for lodging and having the state pick up part of the officers' expenses.
Marone said that centralizing the training in Richmond gives law enforcement heads across the state more flexibility in deciding when to send an officer.
He said he is planning 25 of the one-week courses for next year, an average of every other week. An officer can pick a convenient week to come, one that doesn't interfere with court dates or other obligations, Marone said. Previously, officers had to adapt their schedules to when the local academies were offering the course.
Marone said certified Breathalyzer operators will still be able to take two-day recertification classes at local academies.
The state will begin replacing - at no cost to law enforcement agencies - old Breathalyzer machines with the new models early next year after bringing already trained operators up to speed on how to use the new machines.
The new infrared machines will print out results of a breath test on a certificate of analysis. The machines also will scan the driver's license and the officer's operator's license, leaving little room for human error that can lead to dismissals in court - for example, if a wrong date were entered for the officer's Breathalyzer license expiration date.
Bedford Police Chief Milton Graham, president of the Blue Ridge Association of Chiefs of Police, said the new training procedure and the cost problem will be discussed at the organization's September meeting.
Graham hopes that with four months to go before the changes take effect, the state will consider the concerns of police chiefs and sheriffs.
``I believe once we bring it to their attention and look at it, I don't really see how they could go through with it,'' Graham said.
by CNB