PDs move swiftly to fix breathalyzer test issues

The Intoxilyzer 5000 (Courtesy photo).

Rochester and Milton Police said on Monday that any police officers who may have errantly been recertified for administering breathalyzer tests will not be allowed to give the tests until they have proper accreditation and also that defense attorneys who represented clients whose tests were given by officers in question will be notified.

Due to a glitch in the online recertification testing - done by an independent provider - certain officers were allowed to skip a portion of the test, about 60 officers in all, including one from Rochester (none from Milton).

A second list that came out last week included about 150 more officers whose scores may or may not have reflected a passing grade due to an anomaly within the computer program.

That later list included several more Rochester officers and two from Milton.

In the case of the two from Milton, Police Chief Richard Krauss said on Monday that one of them had already taken the test again and been properly recertified. In the case of the other, their online test results will have to be analyzed to see if the computer glitch affected their score or not.

In any case, Krauss as well as Rochester Police Capt. Paul Toussaint wanted to stress to the public that these officers had no reason to ever believe that they had not passed the test legitimately.

They both agreed that officers around the state were getting a bad rap on a problem that was no fault of their own.

"This was 100 percent the fault of the computer," Krauss said.

Defense lawyer John Durkin has been leading the charge to make the officers' names public through a Right to Know lawsuit. He has said a larger number of cases may have to be thrown out of court or bargained down to lesser offenses.

A state worker found problems earlier this year on how an outside vendor conducted recertification exams of police officers that use the Intoxilyzer 5000.
However, Krauss and Toussaint said the breathalyzer test is usually only one part of the police case, adding that police normally charge a DWI using the BAC (a per se charge, meaning "in itself") as well as driving while intoxicated (prima facie).

Prima facie refers to a Latin term that roughly translates, "on the face of it," so if a driver is weaving down the road, then falls down while trying to walk a straight line in a field sobriety test, the officer has a strong case that the individual was impaired, with or without the breathalyzer test.

"We'll always file the alternate charge as well," Toussaint said on Monday.

Toussaint said among the list released first, the single officer named had only one DWI case that might be affected and the defense attorney in that case had already been notified.

Krauss, meanwhile, didn't think the lone Milton officers affected by the second list had had any DWI arrests in the time period in question, also noting that it hadn't even been determined yet if their passing grade was legit or that it had reflected a failing grade made passing by the computer glitch.

"That's something I have to check up on," he said.

Meanwhile, both police departments from now on will be sending officers to take the recertification test in person.