- the michigan state police has found problems with results from the breathalyzer it uses statewide, blaming the company that's supposed to maintain and calibrate them.
- msp is checking the equipment itself now and has recertified the use of 37 of the 203 machines. meanwhile, they're suggesting police perform blood tests instead of breath tests.
- in november, the new york times conducted an investigation, finding that issues with breathalyzers are commonplace across the county.
the breathalyzer test has been an accepted part of the battle against drunk driving and results treated like gospel for more than half a century; the first breathalyzer was invented way back in 1954. its use has been documented to reduce deaths from drunken-driving incidents. but now, the integrity of the test equipment itself is being called into question across the country.
a new york times investigation in november found that breathalyzer tests can be unreliable if the equipment is not properly calibrated. as its headline put it, "these machines can put you in jail. don’t trust them." the times noted that in just the past year, more than 30,000 breathalyzer results have been thrown out of court in massachusetts and new jersey "largely because of human errors and lax governmental oversight."
michigan is a case in point. it has been added to the list of states with issues in their breathalyzer tests after the michigan state police (msp) found that the datamaster dmt breath-testing equipment it uses is not being properly calibrated.
the michigan state police opened a statewide investigation after finding reporting issues by employees at intoximeter, the vendor of the datamaster dmt breathalyzers used in michigan and the company contracted to maintain and calibrate the machines. the intoximeter employees are accused of having falsified records about their inspection work on the breathalyzers. the msp noticed an irregularity in a sheriff's department breathalyzer "during a routine audit of documents submitted by the vendor for the prior two-week period" in early january, according to msp. shortly thereafter, msp took all 203 datamaster dmt breathalyzers out of service and decided to test their accuracy in-house.
as of thursday, january 16, the msp had found eight locations where discrepancies had been found in the breathalyzer results, putting 52 completed drunk-driving tests in jeopardy. of those, according to the report, half of the tests are suspected to be defective, calling the bad maintenance work "a possible criminal act." the michigan state police's col. joseph gasper testified before the michigan senate late last week that the police suspect instrument calibration tests were "fabricated." lt. mike shaw told a reporter for wxyz in detroit that the testing company is believed to have done "some type of falsification of documents, from cutting and pasting to just outright using different machines and not doing what they're supposed to be doing."
the drunk-driving convictions related to those results could be tossed out, as detroit's wxyz reported this weekend.
meanwhile, msp has since recalibrated and recertified 37 machines itself, of a total of 203 in use across the state, and aims to have all of the breathalyzers returned to service by the end of next month. until the breathalyzers are certain to be back and working correctly, msp has recommended that police agencies in the state utilize blood draws to test for drunk driving.