In 2021, Senate Bill 28 was filed that would have required ignition interlocks for a) anyone convicted of drunk driving regardless of BAC or number of offenses and b) those wanting to apply for a TARL. Despite passing the Senate by a 40-1 vote in 2021, the House Judiciary Committee never even gave the bill a hearing in all of 2022, killing the bill. This bill would have truly been a life-saving measure that would also have meant that refusing to give a breath or blood sample would actually have affected someone negatively (cost and inconvenience) and may have caused them to reconsider the choice of refusing to blow.
Focus Area #3: Reforming the “Dash Cam” Statute
In a previous section we already outlined the concerns with our state’s dash cam statute that has been interpreted so strictly that it endangers public safety by too often leading to cases to be pled down over minor issues that do not get to the heart of whether the person accused was actually too impaired to drive. It is MADD’s stance, along with many partners we work with, that our dash cam video needs to be changed. The preference is not to remove dash cams from the arrest process but to amend the law so that a shortcoming in the video could result in the video, or a portion of it, being thrown out with the other evidence staying. No other crime statute puts such emphasis on the video.
Focus Area #4: Getting It Right the First Time
In our meetings with local officers and prosecutors, many spoke in different ways about an issue MADD knows all too well —if we don’t treat first offense DUI seriously and get it right after that first arrest, what comes later may haunt us. MADD repeatedly serves victims/survivors whose crashes are caused by those with previous DUI arrests. The low conviction rates we’ve discussed have some of these offenders in those statistics. It is heartbreaking to serve a family so traumatically affected and then have to help them deal with the fact that the system failed so terribly, often because their offender was not found guilty of those earlier offenses and given the appropriate penalties that come with convictions. We encourage readers, if they have not done so already, to return to the front of this report and read the dedication to the memory of Ashley Avant. Five prior arrests. Too little accountability. A young mother taken away from her family. This is an unacceptable failure. Our prosecutors spoke to another issue with those who go through the system the first time and end up with a lesser offense — they are even more savvy to the process and are even harder to convict if they are arrested again later. Now they have already seen that they can get a deal and will expect it again. If they worked with a DUI attorney,
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