The use of Ewarrants provides law enforcement with a streamlined way to obtain blood-alcohol readings of suspected DUI drivers. It is believed this will help officers more effectively take impaired drivers off the road. It also could make Illinois a safer place to live and work.
Currently, officers must obtain a warrant to take a suspect’s blood for a breathalyzer test after an officer stops them on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. This process can be time consuming, especially when a warrant is required to take the blood sample from someone who is in custody or at the scene of an accident. This is one of the main reasons why law enforcement officials are working to implement a new system that will allow for an Ewarrant to be used.
Ewarrants will save countless hours, and possibly days, of lost police work by cutting out the manual processes. These are hours that can be better spent on apprehension and investigation of criminals. For example, Meigs County Common Pleas Court recently launched an eWarrants system which has cut bench warrant filing times from days to as little as 12 minutes. This system automates and streamlines the existing process by eliminating manual hand-to-hand transfer of warrant paperwork from agency to agency and duplicative data entry into multiple case management systems.
It also improves the thoroughness, accuracy and timeliness of warrant and protection order submissions to LEADS and NCIC for officer safety, public safety and firearm transfer decisions. Lastly, it enhances law enforcement situational awareness by making it easy for departments to track open warrants and protection orders. eWarrants is intuitive, responsive, quick, web-based and mobile friendly and is free to law enforcement, courts and clerks in all 88 Ohio counties.
The eWarrants system was created by InnovateOhio, the state’s agency that supports government innovation. It was developed after a review of the traditional warrant process by the Warrant Task Force led by Governor DeWine found that an untold number of arrest and protection orders were slow to be – or never were – entered into the national databases because of inefficient, outdated, and largely manual entry processes.
In addition to the Ewarrants system, InnovateOhio has launched Guide and File which makes it easy for self-represented litigants and attorneys to prepare and file various types of cases online from a smartphone or tablet. The system is available to anyone with a computer or smartphone and a high-speed internet connection.
Police departments across the country are working to implement a similar Ewarrants system, including those in Illinois. In fact, Chicago’s police department has started using Ewarrants this year for blood tests on people who are suspected of drunk driving. They claim this will provide them with more accurate results compared to those taken manually using forcible extraction.
