PATROL DWI Special Bulletin

From time to time, we provide the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust’s PATROL online peace officer training membership with a “Special Bulletin” involving recent case-law decisions immediately impacting law enforcement. Recently, the issues of DWI testing laws and test refusal charges have surfaced. We encourage you to review the following Special Bulletin on this issue (you can also find it in the online PATROL Library):

http://www.lmc.org/media/document/1/specialupdatedwitesting.pdf

This Bulletin includes more information about the U.S. Supreme Court’s review of a breath test refusal case from Minnesota, and the Minnesota Supreme Court’s consideration of a blood test refusal decision from the Minnesota Court of Appeals. These reviews are pending, which means we're in an environment of legal uncertainty, but we've provided some general practice tips for dealing with the many unknowns.

As always, we urge you to talk with your prosecutors about what you should be doing in your own jurisdiction.

Up next: Mental Health First Aid

In the meantime, stay safe and be careful.

Rob