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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Thanks for watching. | |
| No refusal meaning that the driver can have their blood drawn even if the suspect refuses the blood draw and or the breath test. | |
| Now while we recognize driving while intoxicated as a very serious offense, is it serious enough to have your rights and privacy violated? | |
| Police are doing no refusal DUI weekends where they can draw your blood without your approval. | |
| Do you have any thoughts about that? | |
| I don't have any problem with that. | |
| I think that's really unsafe. | |
| A lot of people faint when they have their blood drawn and it doesn't make it any safer for them to be driving. | |
| What are your thoughts on them, you know, being able to acquire a warrant to draw your blood even if you refuse? | |
| Um, I don't, I think it's, it's, I don't know, they shouldn't allow that. | |
| I kind of feel it's a little invasive and kind of, I don't know, the lack of communication between them and the community is kind of stupid. | |
| I think even if I'm completely sober, hadn't had a drink all night, I'd still rather go to jail for the night. | |
| Really? | |
| Why so? | |
| I just, I don't think it's fair. | |
| Do you think they could do anything besides blood draws and breathalyzers to, you know, keep the auto accidents down? | |
| Whatever it takes. | |
| Whatever it takes? | |
| Yeah, to keep us safe and to keep everybody else safe. | |
| I think just installing checkpoints and doing breathalyzers of suspected drunk drivers would be a good way. | |
| To limit the number of DUI accidents? | |
| I don't know. | |
| I'm not sure what they can do, really. | |
| It's up to the people, you know. | |
| I think the streets of Austin are safe as they are. | |
| Even from drunk drivers? | |
| There's no drunk drivers. | |
| Everyone who drives a cab nowadays. | |
| I think. | |
| Right? | |
| Yes. | |
| Right. | |
| Do you think texting is more or less dangerous than drinking and driving? | |
| Um, maybe equally. | |
| Anything that's gonna take their sound judgment, then it's better to ban it. | |
| You've seen people text and drive, right? | |
| Yeah. | |
| Do you think that's more or less dangerous than drinking and driving? | |
| Probably more dangerous, I would think. | |
| You know? | |
| I feel like anyone can be distracted by really anything that they do while driving, and texting away is just stupid. | |
| I mean, you can be talking and still get into an accident. | |
| It's not necessarily about what you're doing, it's about the driver and how responsible they are. | |
| Have you ever texted while you're driving? | |
| Always. | |
| I try and do it at red lights. | |
| The National Highway and Safety Administration released that in 2010. | |
| 10,000 people died as a result of alcohol-related incidents. | |
| Very serious numbers. | |
| But if you take a look at textinganddrivingsafety.com's post, they found that texting and driving is six times more dangerous than drinking and driving. | |
| Also, that texting and driving mirrors the effects of driving after having four beers. | |
| Once again, we do not in any way encourage you to drink and drive. | |
| We are simply pointing out that texting and driving is more dangerous. | |
| I'm here with Commander Jason Dusteroff of the Highway Enforcement Unit. | |
| Alright, so I want to ask you a few questions about the No Refusal DUI weekends. | |
| First of all, how long have you been doing them? | |
| We've been doing them over three years in our department. | |
| Alright, and how did they get started? | |
| Was there any particular reason or need for them? | |
| Chief Acevedo came in and really saw the need that we need to hold more drivers that are out there driving impaired, and especially the ones that are killing and injuring people, accountable. | |
| Now, are there any plans to make these No Refusal weekends permanent or to expand them to other, you know, maybe not holidays, just kind of every weekend? | |
| Is there any plans to do anything like that? | |
| I know a lot of cities, like I explained earlier, are moving towards no refusal 365 days of the year, all the time, 24 hours. | |
| That's something we're always going to keep in our bag and look at it individually and say, is it right for Austin? | |
| Is there any type of violation of the Fourth Amendment right to be secure in your person, in your opinion? | |
| No, not at all. | |
| This has been upheld throughout the United States that it's within the constitutional rights for us to take that blood. | |
| Recently, the city of Austin was in the news for, you know, having people infiltrate the Occupy Movement last December. | |
| Protesters were at the Port of Houston and they say that officers were involved in allowing them, assisting them block the Houston Port. | |
| Do you have any comment on that? | |
| I don't. | |
| I really don't have any information on that. | |
| Alright, just one final question, sir. | |
| Now, we had a chance to speak to some people on the street just a few minutes ago and one of the questions we asked them is when you're driving and you look in your rearview mirror and you see a police officer, do you feel safe or do you feel threatened? | |
| We talked about seven to eight people and the majority of them said that they feel threatened. | |
| When you see a cop car and you're driving and you see a cop car behind you, you know, do you feel more safe or less safe? | |
| I feel less safe. | |
| I feel fine. | |
| I'm just at that point worried about if I have like a tail light out or something. | |
| I think the police have, they're not like they used to be. | |
| I feel very scared, always. | |
| Even when I'm not drinking, even when I'm just going to the store, I feel threatened all the time. | |
| So, I don't know. | |
| Threatened by who? | |
| Just the cops. | |
| I feel like they're going to pull me over for anything. | |
| It all depends because they like to harass, you know what I mean? | |
| When I see the policemen, I don't have anything to hide, so they are my friends now. | |
| Now to clarify, you're saying you feel unsafe because of the police or just unsafe in general? | |
| Unsafe because of the police. | |
| Do you have any idea of why that may be? | |
| Well, I think most the time people see those lights behind them is the first thing they think is, was I speeding? | |
| You know, did I not obey the law? | |
| What did I do? | |
| So typically, you know, that's a normal feeling. | |
| But I think once they meet the officer and they're able to go, okay, you know, I was just going a few miles an hour over the speed limit or my tail lights out or something like that. | |
| 99.9% of our citizens are doing nothing wrong other than a minor traffic violation. | |
| Now over the weekend, over 90 people were arrested for the no refusal DUI clause. | |
| About half of those gave both breath and blood samples, but not all of those were voluntary. | |
| Now we had a chance to speak to a couple of officers off the record. | |
| They told us that the blood drops are not automatic and they do need a judge's approval to do them. |
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