Blood draws by law enforcement

October 14, 2007

Check this out.

In Arizona, law enforcement officers draw blood in the field for suspected

DUIs. Inevitably, now one of them is being sued big time over a bad

infection a guy says he got after having his blood drawn in the back of a police

car.

Some of you may recall that there was a bill introduced in the Texas

Legislature to have medics draw blood in DWI cases when asked by the cops. It

failed, I believe.

Please pay particular attention to the part of the article that raises the

question of " concern for the patient " and duty to the patient.

It might well bear thought about the same allegations being made against a

medic drawing blood for the LE folks when not medically indicated. Who is the

medic's duty to? Law enforcement or the patient?

Interestingly enough, the lawyers get the blood results thrown out most of

the time, because the cops often coerce the driver into agreeing to the blood

draw, or worse, they do it while other officers restrain the patient. (See the

part about tasing people to get them to comply.) Pima County (where I live

and the site of what the article is about) has an abysmally low DUI conviction

rate, something like 1 in every 42 cases actually results in a conviction.

I'm not sure why that is.

Tucson police do not do this. Only the sheriff.

Gene Gandy, JD, LP

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