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Courtesy of Beaufort Gazzette
By PATRICK DONOHUE
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843-986-5531
Over the next five months, nearly 100 law enforcement officers from northern Beaufort County will be trained to use new state-of-the-art breathalyzers, as the state prepares to implement tougher DUI laws.
With a one-time, $1.8-million appropriation earlier this year from Gov. Mark Sanford's office, the S.C. Law Enforcement Division purchased more than 400 DataMaster DMT alcohol breath-testing machines and will begin distributing them to law enforcement agencies across the state early next year.
The new Windows-based operating systems will replace the BAC DataMaster breath analyzer machines that state law enforcement has been using for more than 20 years.
"The new machines are more user-friendly, have touch screens, are easier to read and operate and also allow the officer to immediately scan drivers' licenses rather than having to manually input information into SLED's database," said Melissa Munn, spokeswoman for the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy in Columbia.
Police from around the state will be trained on the equipment at the academy.
Each machine costs approximately $10,000, but the individual departments won't pay for them or any related maintenance costs, Munn said.
"The machines are furnished for the departments by SLED and are all maintained by contractors paid by SLED," she said. "The departments have no initial expense and don't have to pay for the machines ... even the printer paper is furnished by SLED for the first year."
Beaufort County owns two of the old machines and will receive two new machines.
The new machines will begin being used by area law enforcement at noon Feb. 10, the date when new, stricter state DUI laws go into effect.
"The transition to the new machines will take a matter of seconds," Munn said. "On Feb. 10, at noon, all of the old BAC DataMaster machines across the state will automatically become inoperable and the new DMT machines will become fully functional. At that point, state agencies will then be required to use only the new DMT machine."
New laws call for tougher penalties for first-time offenders, such as requiring them to enroll in drug and alcohol treatment programs,and remove community service as a sentencing option for second and subsequent offensives. The law also allows for a tiered penalty system with greater punishments for those found to be grossly intoxicated.
Approximately 4,440 officers statewide who are certified on the old machines need to be trained on the new machines, including 96 in northern Beaufort County, according to the justice academy.
Officers are being required to complete a four-hour DataMaster certification course to operate the new equipment, as well as become educated about the new DUI laws.
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