By Sen. Tim Owens
No matter how the public might perceive the issue of DUI, it
can be summed up as a public safety issue.
Approximately five years ago, it became apparent that the
DUI program in Kansas was broken and needed to be fixed. The journey to Senate
Bill 6, which passed with 100% of the vote in both houses of the Kansas
Legislature in May of this year, began with a report done by the Substance
Abuse Policy Board (SAPB). The SAPB was formed after it became apparent that
too many people were driving on the roadways in Kansas with multiple DUIs on
their record but had had little or no corrective or rehabilitative action taken
to cause them to alter their behavior.
When the public became aware of such incidents as the one in
Wichita where a mother and her daughter were killed by a driver who had had
over a half-dozen DUI convictions and was still driving, pressure mounted on
the legislature to take action. The SAPB report was scathing in its
condemnation of the manner in which DUIs in Kansas were handled. In response, I
was appointed as vice-chair of the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice
Committee to chair a subcommittee to explore legislative measures to address
the concerns of the SAPB.
Valuable information was received from a variety of
disciplines that dealt in some manner with the DUI offenders. From those
committee hearings came a decision three years ago to form a Blue Ribbon DUI
Commission which was to do an extensive investigation into the problems and
recommend potential solutions to improve public safety by reducing the numbers
of DUI offenders on Kansas roadways. That task was accomplished with the
recommendations that resulted in the passage of Senate Bill 6 in the 2011
session.
The major accomplishments in Senate Bill 6 were those that
addressed some of the core needs for rehabilitating the weak DUI system in
Kansas and are major accomplishments in their own right toward strengthening
public safety. Two primary achievements of the new law, which went into effect
July 1, 2011, are:
● Thanks
in no small part to the Secretary Deb Miller of the Kansas Department of
Transportation, coming to the financial rescue of the issues surrounding the
implementation of a Central Repository through a Memorandum of Understanding
with the KBI, that repository will be implemented. It will be the central
resource that allows prosecutors and courts to have a clearer idea of how many
DUI’s an individual offender may have so that appropriate prosecution and
sentencing may ensue. It is the hope that through this program and the
requirements of Senate Bill 6, there will be a uniform application of the law
and sentencing across the state in every jurisdiction and in every court,
whether District or Municipal.
● The new
law addresses the issue of public safety by requiring all DUI offenders to have
an ignition interlock device installed on their own vehicle and no offender
will be allowed to drive any vehicle that does not have an interlock devise
installed.
It is the sincere hope of the DUI Commission and the
Legislature that the changes brought about by Senate Bill 6 as a result of the
extensive work done by the DUI Commission will put the State of Kansas back on
the road to safer highways and a reduction in the number of DUI’s.
Tim Owens is the
Kansas Senator for the 8th District
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