Original Article Police drawing blood in DUI probes can make that drink your last Nov. 21, 2004 12:00 AM You may not think so, but if you drink wine with dinner, or have a beer after work, it's quite possible that at some time in the future you'll be stopped and investigated for DUI. In the past, this meant that you would have been expected to submit to a breath test, or a blood test administered by a nurse or phlebotomist, usually at a local hospital or clinic. But things have changed. Local law enforcement agencies now send their DUI patrol officers to the one-week Phoenix College Law Enforcement Phlebotomy course. Although authorizing police officers to draw blood may sound good in theory, the reality on the streets may make you change your mind. Police officers in Arizona commonly draw blood in the backs of patrol cars, on the side of the road, on the hoods and trunks of cars, in holding cells and other rooms within the jails, and in mobile DUI vans. The director of the Phoenix Police Department DUI Van program has testified that bodily fluids such as blood, urine, saliva and sweat have all been excreted by people in the van, yet no formal protocol for disinfection and sanitation of the area before drawing blood exists. Similarly, the coordinators of the Phoenix Police Department and Maricopa County Sheriff's Office phlebotomy programs have admitted, under oath, that they do not require their officers to disinfect the areas where these invasive medical procedures are performed. advertisement Cathee Tankersley, the director of the Phoenix College program, would probably agree that it's a good idea to draw blood in a sterile environment. According to her textbook, health care facilities are required by OSHA to disinfect the areas where blood is drawn once every eight hours. Why? Because it's important that patients not be put at risk of contracting bacterial and other infections, like HIV and Hepatitis B and C. Tankersley would also probably agree that it's important to stabilize a person's arm when drawing blood. During the Phoenix College course (and in Tankersley's textbook), the officers are instructed to use a formal phlebotomy chair with a proper armrest when drawing blood. But police officers in Maricopa and Pima counties regularly draw blood on the side of the road with nothing to support the person's arm, in many cases while the person is standing. If a patient's arm is not properly secured when sticking a needle into it, the likelihood of damaging a vein, artery, nerve or tendon increases. The odds of such an injury occurring are further increased when a police officer, who typically performs fewer than 50 blood draws a year, is performing the procedure. Private-sector phlebotomists, in contrast, complete hundreds of blood draws a year - sometimes more than a thousand. And they administer the procedure in safe medical environments. Civilian phlebotomists also have the benefit of working alongside other health care professionals. Most police officers, in contrast, are not directly supervised when drawing blood. In fact, most officers who draw blood are never required to have their phlebotomy skills re-evaluated once they complete the one-week crash course at Phoenix College. Paramedics, EMTs and nurses, by comparison, are required to demonstrate their continuing proficiency to be recertified each year. While preventing people from driving drunk is extremely important, it is also critical that the government not place the average citizen in excessive physical danger when investigating a crime. In the past, our police departments arranged for civilian health care professionals to draw people's blood in recognized medical facilities. It's a practice that works for the rest of the country, and it worked in Arizona for decades. Must some of our citizens be needlessly injured or infected before we realize that police officers should not be in the business of drawing blood? Matthew H. Green is a Phoenix attorney who formerly worked as an assistant public defender in Maricopa and Pima counties.