Imagine being pulled over in your car by a police officer who suspects that you are driving while intoxicated. Imagine also that he requests a blood sample and rather than taking you to a hospital where a qualified person will draw your blood, he simply produces a kit and takes the blood himself at the side of the road.
Unimaginable? Read on.
Under the current state of the law, the Texas Transportation Code prohibits the police from taking blood samples from Driving While Intoxicated suspects themselves. In other words, the police are required to take their suspect to a "sanitary place" and have the blood drawn by someone who is qualified to draw the blood.
I was startled to read recently that Texas has sent some of its law enforcement officers to Idaho to be trained in blood draw techniques. Since this practice is expressly prohibited by Texas law, what is the point? The point may be a concerted push by law enforcement to change the law to authorize the scenario I described above. This is the wrong way to go about achieving the goal of reducing the number of intoxicated motorists on the road.
