Orange County drivers convicted of a DUI would need to install a breathalyzer on their car if legislation passes in Sacramento this year.
Sacramento Snapshot
Editor’s note: Sacramento Snapshot is a weekly series during the legislative session detailing what Orange County’s representatives in the Assembly and Senate are working on — from committee work to bill passages and more.
California can already require people convicted multiple times of driving under the influence to install what’s called an ignition interlock device, which requires a breath sample before a car engine can be started. If it detects alcohol, then the car will not start.
But Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, wants to ensure even more drivers are prevented from driving under the influence. Her legislation would extend the sunset on the statewide program and create a new pilot program for just five counties, including Orange County, requiring certain first-time offenders to install a breathalyzer in their cars for six months.
“That’s really in recognition of the fact that one-third of drunk driving arrests are repeat offenders,” said Petrie-Norris.
Aside from Orange, the program for first-time DUI offenders would also cover Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Sacramento counties. (Counties were chosen by population size and by the bill’s co-authors.)
“To me, this is a common-sense measure. We know that it will save lives,” Petrie-Norris said.
According to the bill’s analysis, most people convicted of a DUI the first time receive probation and must pay fines or fees and attend a treatment program in order to get their license back. And California law does enable judges to require a breathalyzer for first-time DUI offenders, the analysis says.
However, the “judge may determine that an IID is not the most appropriate remedy when a person has been convicted of a first-time DUI and there is no evidence of alcohol abuse or other history of poor judgment,” the analysis said. “A court might find that imposition of an IID is not the best remedy if the defendant is part of a household where a single car is shared between the defendant and other family members and requiring an IID on that car will burden family members that have engaged in no wrongdoing.”
The bill has support from the Automobile Club of Southern California, the California Police Chiefs Association and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, among others. It’s opposed by the ACLU California Action, the California Public Defenders Association and Root & Rebound, an Oakland-based organization that helps people navigate post-incarceration.
“The financial consequences of a DUI conviction are considerable and are disproportionately burdensome for low-income drivers,” Root & Rebound said in an opposition note to the bill, arguing that convictions and consequences are “unequally levied on Black and Brown drivers.”
“This bill would add the cost of an ignition interlock device to this list for all first-time convictions,” the group said. “For low-income drivers who are trying to comply with their legal obligations, the cumulative financial costs often prevent them from meeting these obligations and leave them with an indefinitely suspended license.”
The bill is awaiting a vote in the Assembly.
In other news
• The Senate unanimously passed last week a resolution that calls for federal support for the cleanup efforts following the massive fire that destroyed a Navy hangar in Tustin in November. The resolution, led by Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, asks President Joe Biden to declare a national emergency because of ongoing environmental and health effects and to support a $100 million funding request.
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• Assemblymember Tri Ta, R-Westminster, led a bipartisan effort asking the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to rescind its designation of April 30 as “Jane Fonda Day.” The Board had recognized the actress for her activism over the years with the designation.
But in the letter to the Board of Supervisors, the legislators noted that April 30 is also recognized as Black April in the Vietnamese community, which marks the anniversary of the fall of Saigon and South Vietnam on April 30, 1975, to North Vietnamese troops. It’s a solemn day, the legislators wrote, and Fonda is known for her protests against the Vietnam War.
“We cannot fathom why the Board of Supervisors would choose this particular day to celebrate Jane Fonda. The pain and hurt caused by this decision will surely cause long-term damage to the Vietnamese community,” the legislators said.
Ta on Thursday said the Board of Supervisors would consider moving the day from coinciding with Black April.
Republican Assemblymembers Phillip Chen, Laurie Davies, Diane Dixon and Kate Sanchez were among those who signed onto the letter.
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