BROKEN ARROW - Nearly 100 percent of Broken Arrow Police Department officers are now trained and licensed to use the Intoxilyzer 8000, the device approved in Oklahoma for evidential breath alcohol testing.
In a recent update to city councilors, Police Chief David Boggs cited this as one of his department's significant accomplishments last year.
Boggs said the state is experiencing an increase in the number of DUI-related collisions. Training all officers on the Intoxilyzer is one of the department's initiatives to strengthen its DUI enforcement, he said.
Maj. Scott Bennett of the operations division said the initiative will save the department time and money, as well as prevent delays when a DUI case goes to court.
Bennett said previously that if the arresting officer was not the same officer who administered the breath alcohol test, then both officers would be required to testify when the case was heard in court.
"It is detrimental, because if for whatever reason one officer can't make the court date, it can cause potential delays," he said. "It also drives up the overtime bill."
Through this initiative, the same officer who makes the arrest will be able to administer the test and testify in court.
"Why pay two officers to go to court when one officer can get the job done?" Bennett said.
The training process involves taking a series of online modules, then attending a class and taking the exam administered by the Oklahoma Board of Tests for Alcohol and Drug Influence in Oklahoma City.
The cost for the course and the permit is $62, said agency director Kevin Behrens. Officers must renew their permits every year for a cost of $12.
Bennett said the Intoxilyzer is "not a terribly complicated machine to operate."
"But there are some very linear procedures that have to be used with it, and they have to be used in a certain order, the same way, every time, with every arrestee that comes through," he said. "The state wants to make sure that everybody follows those procedures so those cases don't get thrown out of court."
Bennett estimated that about 60 to 65 percent of Broken Arrow officers were licensed to operate the machine before the initiative.
In comparison, about 45 percent of Tulsa's officers have permits to operate the Intoxilyzer.
Intoxilyzer used in field tests, sobriety checkpoints
The Intoxilyzer is the breath alcohol testing device approved as an evidential breath-alcohol analyzer in Oklahoma.
"The reading that comes out of this machine is admissible in a court of law," said Broken Arrow Police Maj. Scott Bennett.
The machine is used after an officer sustains probable cause through a standardized field sobriety test or testing device.
The Broken Arrow Police Department has two Intoxilyzer 8000 machines. The department bought the first machine in August 2009 for $9,000.
The second machine was purchased in May 2012 for $8,200 and is used as a back-up unit or to be taken on operations such as sobriety checkpoints.
Both instruments are portable and can be operated on battery power. The predecessor to this machine, the Intoxilyzer 5000, was bigger and intended only for desktop use, Bennett said.
Nour Habib 918-581-8369
nour.habib@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: BA police ready for drunk drivers with Intoxilyzer
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