JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- Meeting rooms across Missouri filled up with police officers needing a refresher course in DWI investigations Friday.
Prosecutors said DWI jury expectations create new pressures on drunk driving investigations.
However, a new state law offers a new tool to increase their conviction rates.
The situation has changed for officers in the field. First, DWI jury expectations have changed as the result of crime scene investigation TV shows.
"[TV shows] convince everyone that we're always gonna have scientific evidence in every single criminal case we prosecute, which is largely untrue,” Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson said. “So they're gonna compare you to that officer on the screen, who's actually an actor.”
That was one of the issues discussed at a training event called "Protecting Missouri’s roadways" and focused on the need for scientific evidence.
The sessions featured a live webcast financed by Anheuser-Busch. In Jefferson City, the local Budweiser distributor even provided the meeting place.
"We have children,” Beverage Distributor Joe Scheppers said. “We have relatives and loved ones out on the roads. Nobody wants to share the roads with inebriated, drunk drivers. It's not something anyone wants to be part of.”
"Many of us believe that the legislature did that for a reason, and that reason was to allow the warrantless drawing of blood from a person that you've arrested for driving while drugged or intoxicated,” Richardson said.
The United States Supreme Court has already upheld the collection of blood without a warrant, but Richardson said it likely will take a state appellate court ruling on that point to settle the issue in Missouri and that will require a local prosecutor mustering the courage to test it.
Similar DWI training sessions were held in Springfield, St. Louis, and Kansas City.
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