The Houston Police Department was hoping to certify 10 officers as phlebotomists, blood drawers, starting last week, but is meeting delays due to vaccination issues.
Phlebotomist training is set to take place at Lone Star College. The officers first must receive a host of vaccinations, which they have not done yet. Only once these requirements are met will the officers start the training. This training is not as complete as nurse or doctor blood draw training. However, the state believes it is sufficient for DWI blood draw cases.
Suspects should be at least partially happy to find out that the blood draws are not set to take place at the scene of the arrest or in the "field." Instead, suspects will be taken to a Central Intox facility to have their blood drawn. The HPD is hoping to reduce delays they currently face by having hospitals and medical facilities, many of which are not equipped to test the blood, carryout the blood draws.
Certifying officers to draw blood was an experiment first attempted in Arizona in 1998. There, over 1,000 officers were trained to draw blood from individuals who refused a breath test. The warrant requirement in Arizona remained in place, but the state found ways around this by having on-demand warrant approvals.
In Texas, no warrant will be required for the blood draws. Texas already has a mandatory blood draw policy for any person accused of a felony DWI, such as a repeat offense or DWI causing serious injury. The "no warrant" stipulation concerns many who are worried about protecting defendant's rights in each case.
The concerns also partially stem from a September law change that makes DWI blood tests mandatory whenever there is an accident involving injury. An officer does not need to show probable cause to draw blood as of September 1 of this year. There is not enough information gathered on this policy yet to determine if it is effective in either reducing DWI accidents or reducing refusals.
In Arizona, only about 5% of motorists refuse breath tests now that the mandatory blood draw law is in place. Houston currently sees about a 50% refusal rate, according to a report from Examiner.com. Blood tests are now considered much more accurate than breath tests and preferred in most DWI cases, leading more states to adopt the "no refusal" policy on blood tests and not just breath tests.
