Las Vegas DUI Suspects Subject to Immediate Blood Draws as of Oct. 1

Posted on: September 25, 2022, 11:24h. 

Last updated on: September 26, 2022, 02:19h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas.

Beginning next month, anyone suspected of driving under the influence (DUI) in Las Vegas can have their blood drawn on the spot. That’s when phlebotomists will patrol with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department seven nights a week to collect blood samples at traffic stops and accidents.

Traffic Stop Phlebotomist Police
Phlebotomist Ashley Webber-Gamboa, bottom right, draws blood from an unidentified DUI suspect following a traffic stop by Las Vegas police earlier this year. (Image: Las Vegas Review-Journal)

The new program is funded by a $545K grant from the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety (NOTS), which cites impaired driving as the leading cause of fatal crashes in Nevada. The program enables phlebotomists to ride with police sergeants and deploy to DUI stops or accidents as needed. It also paid for a specially equipped police blood-draw van.

Police prefer blood tests to breathalyzers — either of which may be administered after a DUI suspect fails various field sobriety tests — because only blood tests measure the presence of both alcohol and drugs, including cannabis. Some studies show that breathalyzers are also unreliable, with a margin of error of up to 50% compared to blood tests.

DUI suspects can refuse a field blood test and opt to take one at the jail, where police will transport them upon refusal. If they continue to decline any blood draw, officers can get a warrant from an on-call judge to force one.

Currently, the blood-taking medical specialists work 10-hour shifts for Metro on weekends and holidays only.

In the past five years, nearly 43% of all crashes involved DUI, according to NOTS.

Two Hours and Counting…

Nevada law gives police two hours from their initial contact with a DUI suspect to collect a blood or breath sample. Otherwise, they can’t use the test as evidence in a DUI case. If the police can’t beat the clock, an expert witness must help prove the suspect was intoxicated while behind the wheel.

All of that is just too resource intensive for misdemeanor arrest and prosecution,” Las Vegas defense attorney Thomas Moskal told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this month.

Phlebotomists began riding with officers as volunteers in 2018. The position became paid two years later as part of an initial $250,000 NOTS grant.

Cannabis Can of Worms Closed

Until last year, anyone driving in Nevada whose blood contained 2 or more nanograms per milliliter of THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis — or 5 or more nanograms per milliliter of cannabis metabolite — was considered legally impaired in court.

Suspects were not allowed to argue that they were not impaired because of a built-up tolerance or that they hadn’t consumed cannabis in days or even weeks and showed no outward signs of impairment.

Last year, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak signed Assembly Bill 400 into law to address this issue. It requires prosecutors to prove cannabis impairment through additional means other than a blood test — such as driving behavior and field sobriety tests.