HOUSTON MAYOR HALTS PROGRAM TRAINING POLICE TO DRAW BLOOD
The Mayor of Houston announced recently that she was scrapping a program that trained police officers to draw blood. The Houston Police Department officers were being trained to draw blood so that they could personally take blood samples from DWI suspects. In the most chilling aspect of the news media coverage surrounding the Mayor's decision, the officers were apparently drawing blood from live subjects at a psychiatric unit of TDC.
Rather than training police officers to draw blood in the unsanitary conditions of a jail, would it not be more safe for all involved to simply have qualified medical personnel draw the blood in a hospital setting that is equipped to address emergencies or unexpected events? The police are not trained or equipped to address the peculiar medical conditions of the person they have arrested, nor are they capable of dealing, on their own medical emergenices that may arise.
The Texas Transportation Code provision regulating blood draws has two main requirements. First, the blood must be drawn in a sanitary place, and second it must be drawn by a person who is listed in the satute as qualified or who is a qualified technician.
In my view, having police drawing blood at the police station may violate the Texas Transportation Code. Further, and even more importantly, that manner of blood draw may be unreasonable as a Fouth Amendment matter. I look forward to continuing to raise thethe statutory and constitutional issue in appropriate blood draw cases
