Arizona ratchets up DUI enforcement during holidays like the Fourth of July — and an attorney says case law that challenged DUI testing methods in a Scottsdale crime lab has changed what evidence police gather from a DUI suspect.
Police made 420 DUI arrests throughout Arizona over Memorial Day weekend and task forces blanketed the state for Independence Day.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that results from a potentially faulty DUI testing machine could be used as evidence. But it also said defense attorneys can show a jury proof that a machine isn’t always reliable, even if their of client’s tests were not faulty.
Since the ruling, police have started gathering more evidence from DUI suspects, said criminal defense attorney Russ Richelsoph with the firm Davis Miles McGuire Gardner, PLLC.
“We have seen a pretty significant change in DUI investigations in Arizona,” Richelsoph said. “We’re seeing police agencies taking both breath samples and blood samples.”
Scottsdale police were the first to take both samples, Richelsoph said. And other law enforcement agencies have started doing it as well.
