On Tuesday, the Senate Law & Justice committee meeting began with an update on three bills passed during the 2017 legislative session that were recently enacted this past July. The enacted legislation includes repeated DUI convictions (SB 5037), forensic phlebotomy programs (E2SHB 1614), and illegal attempts at purchasing firearms (SHB 1501).
Effective July 23, 2017, Senate Bill 5037 states that if an individual gets four DUIs within a 10 year time span, the 4th DUI will be considered a felony rather than a gross misdemeanor. Captain Monica Alexander of the Washington State Patrol reports that from July 23 to October 30, 46 people have already been arrested statewide with a felony DUI.
Part of this bill also includes grants to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission to reduce statewide collisions caused by people driving under the influence. Shelly Baldwin, Legislative Manager for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, told the committee they are currently using their funds for developing treatment programs, such as a DUI referral program in King County that would work with repeat offenders. They are also working with Spokane County’s intensive treatment DUI court to develop treatment programs.
However, the majority of funding has gone to increasing the law-enforcement phlebotomy program, which relates to the second bill, E2SHB 1614, that was reviewed during Tuesday’s meeting.
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E2SHB 1614 made a number of changes to the impaired driving laws of Washington State, but during the committee meeting, the primary focus was its creation of the forensic phlebotomy program and certification. This law would allow police officers and other law enforcement the opportunity to become trained and certified in performing venous blood draws to test for alcohol or drug levels.
To collect forensic blood evidence, officers typically have to take an offender to an emergency department to get their blood drawn and the process can be extremely time-consuming. Offering law enforcement training in blood collection could help streamline the process and save officers’ time.
Lakewood Police department is the first agency to create this kind of program, and already has 10 officers currently in forensic phlebotomy training. They plan to further expand this project in 2018 to create a workforce of 20 trained forensic phlebotomists. Pierce county also plans to have four phlebotomy locations in the region where arresting officers can meet these newly-trained phlebotomists to help collect blood evidence when needed.
“The first agency to do that was Lakewood, and they have had some tremendous results,” said Baldwin. “The program is up and running and they’ve done 30 blood draws, and the really exciting part is that because of their success, other agencies are now applying for funds so that they can get their own training in phlebotomy set up.”
The committee also heard an update on SB 1501; a bill that establishes a reporting system between gun dealers and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC). According to the bill, if someone illegally attempts to buy a firearm and is denied, dealers must report this info electronically to WASPC who then works with the Washington State Patrol to create a database of this information. Since the reporting website was launched at the end of July, 865 reports have already been filed. Seventy Five of those reports involved 31 people making multiple attempts to illegally purchase a firearm. Thirty one of those reports involved a firearm sold, but the dealer later saw that the purchase should have been denied. Sixty three of those illegal attempts were reported to local law enforcement either due to the multiple purchase attempts, or to try and confiscate the firearms that were illegally sold.
These laws and programs have only been in place for the past four months, but the Law & Justice Committee said they look forward to seeing new data and watching how they progress.
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