After Houston Police Department assisting Montgomery County for almost two years now with their BAT mobile another one is on the streets of Montgomery County now.
Using seizure funds from drug raids, Sheriff Gage and Bret Ligon teamed up and contracted with General Body to build one for Montgomery County. The van is equipped with a breathalyzer,fax machine, radio, computers and additional equipment for deputies in the field to process DWI cases and quickly return to the streets without having to drive all the way to Conroe.
The van is also equipped with two jail cells in the back of it. But to make sure they have all the evidence that is needed to prosecute a DWI case the van has cameras inside and out complete with audio, this includes the jail cells. Even conversations in the holding cells are recorded.
The van will be part of this weekends âNo Refusalâ weekend and will be involved in in âDWI ROADBLOCKSâ. According to Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam , âit is a saturation patrol we wonât be stopping cars at random we will be looking for traffic violators.â This is the first time this is being done in Texas in conjunction with no refusal, were very confident that the law that we have in the state of Texas will support what were trying to do.â
Diepraam continued to say,âsobriety checkpoints have been used in narcotics interdiction.â
Sheriff Gage said, âin the past with our No Refusal Weekend we can see a decline in DWI arrests in this county.Were getting folks attention. We want people to come to this county and enjoy themselves, we donât want them to get hurt.â Sheriff Gage said their goal was to be able to say we didnât put anyone in jail for DWI.
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