Atty. General Wants To Pilot Ignition Locks

Air Date:01/25/2011

By Kealey Bultena

State senators will debate a change to the state’s 24/7 sobriety program. The Senate Judiciary committee approved the bill that incorporates ignition locks.

Systems like Interlock devices allow a car to start only after the driver breathes into an alcohol monitor and registers sober. Attorney General Marty Jackley says new devices include camera. He says the tool could augment the program's existing policies.

"You may not be driving, but you still need to come down every day on the PBT and prove it up twice a day because it’s to address not just the driving issue but the sobriety," Jackley says. "That’s where really the technology of Interlock has come. With the camera you can require, even though they’re not going to drive the car everyday, you have the capability to say, every day you’re going to go into your car, and you’re going to look into the camera, and you’re going to blow in it."

Jackley says a pilot program would determine if the devices could be part of South Dakota's DUI tools. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously agree to send the bill to the Senate floor.

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