Oxford Police Department (OPD) plans to get a new high-tech Breathalyzer by the end of 2009, according to Sgt. Jim Squance.
Squance said the new equipment is the best and most advanced model of Breathalyzer available for computer testing. The new Breathalyzer will eliminate maintenance and proficiency testing on the machine, as compared to the current Breathalyzer.
Squance said the Ohio Department of Health along with the Ohio Department of Safety is supplying the new Breathalyzers to local agencies throughout Ohio.
Bret Atkins, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health, said the machines are purchased through the Ohio Department of Public Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"The Ohio Revised Code states that the Ohio Department of Health is required to certify the machines and their operators," Atkins said.
According to Atkins more than $6 million is coming from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to fund the Breathalyzers in efforts to get drunk drivers off the road.
According to Squance the new Breathalyzer will come to the city at no cost.
"The new Breathalyzer will be fully funded by state," Squance said. "We are all very excited to be getting this new piece of technology."
Atkins said that all Ohio law enforcement agencies will receive a new Breathalyzer, including state highway patrol, police officers and sheriffs departments.
Squance said that the OPD is hoping to get one by the end of 2009. According to Squance, the delay in the obtaining a new Breathalyzer is due to the additional testing that must be completed for court purposes.
According to Atkins, one new Breathalyzer will be sent to an Ohio law enforcement agency as a pilot test case to ensure the courts of the accuracy.
"One of these new Breathalyzers is going to be sent to Clermont County as a test case and operations so that the courts can test them more," Squance said.
Atkins said they anticipate the pilot case to end in early 2009, with the rest of the machines distributed sometime in the middle of the year to the rest of the state.
Miami University Police Department Lt. Benjamin Spilman said they have not been notified by the Department of Health if they are going to receive a new Breathalyzer.
"We have no reason to believe we wouldn't receive one," Spilman said. "But I don't have all the details on how they are distributing them and dates."
Spilman said the machines have many advantages, including increasing ease of operation, taking records and storing information. Spilman said that enhanced training will be required in order to operate the new Breathalyzer.
"The new Breathalyzers will take away weekly calibration tests, reducing man power and time," Spilman said.
Some students, however, said there are better things that Ohio could be spending taxpayer money on.
"I'm glad that the state has the money to spend on new high tech Breathalyzers but won't pay money for higher education when Oxford already has working Breathalyzers," Miami University senior Doug Haynes said.
