Brownsville Police Chief: Breath Test Refusals Not an Option for Drivers

KRGV ^ | Mar 28, 2014 | KRGV

[moonshinner_09]

BROWNSVILLE - Brownsville police announced a new policy effective today. Brownsville Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez said the Driving While Intoxicated - No-Refusal policy allows officers to get a warrant to draw blood from anyone who refuses a Breathalyzer test.

The method is the same used for operations during the holidays. Chief Rodriguez told us a blood test gives prosecutors the evidence they need to secure a conviction.

At a press conference, Rodriguez said, "Our objective is to be able to present stronger case files for prosecution. I think we have the duty to do so and the responsibility and the right to do so under the law... Make no mistake, from now on in Brownsville if you choose to drink and drive, breath test refusals are not an option."

Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz said, "The jury has to be convinced without a reasonable doubt. When you have a breath test and we talk about a sobriety test, the defendant can say he's been sick, that he can't stand properly, that he didn't understand and that gives the jury something to consider on the side of finding him not guilty. Whereas if you have a blood test, that's it, once you establish it was properly drawn and properly maintained."

[moonshinner_09]

Sounds like they want to declare you guilty without first receiving a hearing

[Antoninus II]

Police State. That gives them DNA to store in their database, too...

[SampleMan]

I don’t have a fundamental issue with a blood test as long as it’s based on REAL probable cause; but a fundamental issue is that LEOs refuse to make an arrest and then dand a doctor take a blood sample against the person’s will, and THAT is called assault.

[SampleMan]

Dand = demand ;-)

[Blood of Tyrants]

And to force you to give evidence against yourself.

[2ndDivisionVet]

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[driftdiver]

Wasn’t there a court ruling in Texas recently that allowed them to get a warrant after they collected evidence?

[Jonty30]

I don’t drink, so there’s no probable cause to ask me for a Breathalyzer sample.

[bakeneko]

Only if they apply the standard to illegals; no warrant required.

But this appears to be merely a ploy to get more DUI convictions against those of “driving while Caucasian”. Cant turn in conviction rates that discriminate, ya know.

[driftdiver]

They aren’t asking.

[Popman]

I don’t drink, so there’s no probable cause to ask me for a Breathalyzer sample.

You really think that?

Probable cause to many cops is "because I say so"

[EEGator]

[papertyger]

I don’t have a fundamental issue with a blood test as long as it’s based on REAL probable cause

I've seen the way police "justify" their "probable cause" in the courtroom setting.

I'm proud to say the only thing we the jury let the police get that day was "practice."

[MtnClimber]

Can a citizen who suspects a cop is crooked get a confession by burning then from the feet first and on up till the confession comes?

[Walkingfeather]

Somebody needs 5th amendment lessons...

[UCANSEE2]

“Make no mistake, from now on in Brownsville if you choose to drink and drive, breath test refusals are not an option.”

Unless... you are a cop,lawyer, judge, or other member of the protected ruling class.

[papertyger]

Addendum:

Unfortunately, we could not save the defendant’s, a small business owner, CDL, as his refusal of a breathalyzer test automatically revoked his license.

[liberalh8ter]

We may as well update the maps and move the line that delineates Texas from Mexico to just north of Brownsville. As Miss Kay says......she gone.

[MtnClimber]

I would think self defense could be applied in any police stop since assault can reasonably be expected.

[Starstruck]

I once had a cop stop me and ask me to take a Breathalyzer. I said no. He said “Then we will do a blood test.” I said “OK”. I’m still cleaning that suckers blood out of my clothes years later.