...despite improvements

By Joe Gerrety
Journal and Courier - 10/10/99

Ignition interlock has been available as a sentencing option in every state since the early 1990s, but no Lafayette-area judges use the technology.

That fact is frustrating to Margie and Dan Towery of Lafayette, whose daughter was killed in a collision with a drunken driver last March. They are convinced that ignition interlock is technology that would be effective in preventing people from drinking and driving.

Getting an ignition interlock program under way would require that the courts work with private businesses to install and maintain the systems. Three national companies manufacture the devices and set up local franchises to install and maintain them.

"Everybody has to be on board, from the judge to probation," Margie Towery said. But despite the difficulties involved in setting up the system, the Towerys think all judges should adopt the program and impose it, even for first offenders. It's a matter of public safety, they said.

"If people can't drink responsibly, then it's up to the officials to put in the safeguards required so people can drive home and know they're not going to get killed."

How it works

Ignition interlock consists of a device attached to the offender's automobile ignition, requiring the driver to pass a breath-alcohol test before the vehicle will start.

The systems are capable of producing a print-out listing each time the vehicle is started and what breath-alcohol level was recorded, as well as attempts to bypass the system. It also requires random "rolling retests" to prevent a user from drinking while on the road or leaving the vehicle running while he visits a tavern.

Judge Laura Zeman of Tippecanoe County Court 2 said she looked into the ignition interlock program in the early 1990s, when she was a deputy prosecutor.

"We had a demonstration, and at that time I don't think the technology was all that good," said Zeman, who hears all of the first-time OWI cases in the county. "It was too easily bypassed."

Specifically, it was too easy for an offender who had been drinking to have a sober friend give the breath test.

The rolling retest in current versions of ignition interlock counters that problem. And some versions also offer a "learned breath code" option that prevents unauthorized people from giving the breath test.

Zeman said she's willing to give ignition interlock another look.

Hancock County success

Judge Richard D. Culver of Hancock Superior Court 2 has been using the system routinely for seven years and gives lectures on its use. In the early 1990s, the judge, who hears all of the drunken driving cases in Hancock County, immediately east of Indianapolis, began using the system in aggravated cases involving second offenders, or first offenders who were involved in crashes or had extremely high blood-alcohol contents.

Because of the success of his initial experiment, Culver said, he quickly began requiring it for all first-time offenders.

Culver, who won the 1996 Adjudication Award from the National Commission Against Drunk Driving for his alternative sentencing programs, believes the ignition interlock system is fair to both the offender and the community because it has rehabilitative value, and the offender - not taxpayers - pays the estimated $700 annual cost.

Because the system typically requires its user to give six or seven breath tests a day, a potential drunken driver gets an ever-present deterrent message.

One drink a day

Brian Brees, an insurance agent in Greenfield, operates Ignition Interlock of Hancock County Inc. as a part-time business. His franchise with Marietta, Ga.-based interlock manufacturer Guardian employs one part-time secretary and a part-time installer. Brees said he has no contract with the court, which he has served for seven years, and he is not guaranteed a certain number of clients.

He said a pilot program could be set up in a town the size of Lafayette in a matter of weeks if a judge was interested in trying the system.

"It's not something that anybody gets rich on," he said. "It's less than a pack of cigarettes a day for the individual. ... It basically is a tool that the court can use to reduce recidivism. It's proven to do that here."

For most people convicted of drunken driving, Judge Culver contends, the cost of using the ignition interlock - about $2 a day - can be covered if they merely curb their daily spending on alcohol by perhaps 15 percent. And most OWI offenders are prohibited from drinking as a term of probation, anyway.

"One bar drink a day pays for the interlock," Culver said.

The cost of ignition interlock is significantly less than the most commonly used alternative, home detention, which costs a minimum of $7 a day in Tippecanoe County. Those fees also are paid by the offender.

Short-term recidivism

Culver said one of the immediate successes of ignition interlock was a reduction in the number of people who were arrested again before they had completed their probation and court-ordered counseling.

He estimates about six offenders out of 1,500 to 2,000 in his court who have been ordered to use ignition interlock have been arrested for drunken driving while using the system. That's a big change from before he used the system.

"I used to get a lot of people arrested for drinking and driving while they were on probation for drinking and driving and while their license was suspended for drinking and driving," Culver said.

Ignition interlock nearly eliminates that problem, he said.

"It has traditional rehabilitation and behavior modification aspects to its daily use," Culver said. "Each breath test is a constant reminder from the court that alcohol and vehicles do not mix."

Zeman