Group protests APD blood draw proposal

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- "Ill-conceived, unnecessary and dangerous" are the words used by the Texas Civil Rights Project to describe Police Chief Art Acevedo's plan to have Austin police officers draw the blood of DWI suspects.

Meanwhile, the Austin Police Association has "concerns," but say the association is not ready to take a position on the issue.

Monday, the chief announced a plan to train his officers to take your blood if you refuse a breathalyzer. Such a measure is now allowed under state law and is being expanded extensively in other areas of the state, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Acevedo said he's working on a federal grant to allow his DWI officers to take you to jail or back to the station, get a search warrant and draw your blood. It is the same process officers use right now- except instead of a jail nurse drawing the blood, it would be a trained police officer.

"Your evidence is dissipating with time and the gathering of the evidence in a timely manner is critical," Acevedo said Tuesday. "We would get a search warrant.  We would get a court order and we would do it in a safe and healthy environment and that's not going to be on the side of the road somewhere."

"Obviously for us it raises some issues and some concerns," said Austin Police Association Vice President Wuthipong Tantaksinanukij. "You're dealing with needles and needle sticks and you know, people with blood bourne pathogens and those other issues all come into play."

"You have the police officers themselves doing the blood tests exposing the city to all types of lawsuits. They don't have nursing training; they don't have medical training," said Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Harrington says the practice will open the city up to lawsuits, as it has in Arizona, where law enforcement officers have been drawing blood for years. The practice is also common in Utah and some counties in Texas.

The chief said he wants to have training done by the end of this year if funding comes through for the program. He argues that many police officers already have medical training and are trained paramedics and EMTs.