Bill Description: Senate Bill 1311 would impose new regulations on ignition interlock system vendors and require them to track and report unsuccessful attempts to start a restricted vehicle.
Rating: -2
Does it give government any new, additional, or expanded power to prohibit, restrict, or regulate activities in the free market? Conversely, does it eliminate or reduce government intervention in the market?
Idaho law allows a court to compel an individual “to have a state-approved ignition interlock system installed, at his expense, on all motor vehicles operated by him.”
Senate Bill 1311 would amend Section 18-8008, Idaho Code, which deals with these ignition interlock systems, to newly require that ignition interlock system vendors “provide proof of installation of the ignition interlock system to the transportation department” and “notify the prosecuting authority any time a person is prevented from starting a motor vehicle.”
(-1)
Does it directly or indirectly create or increase penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for non-violent crimes? Conversely, does it eliminate or decrease penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for non-violent crimes?
The requirement for ignition interlock system vendors to “notify the prosecuting authority any time a person is prevented from starting a motor vehicle” is particularly troubling.
In Idaho, ignition interlock systems are calibrated to prevent a vehicle from starting if the test shows a BAC of .025, a level far below what many people can detect. (A single drink could raise an average person’s BAC to this level.)
It is unreasonable to treat triggering an ignition interlock system as an attempt to violate the law (which typically requires a BAC more than three times the level that triggers the device) and this reporting requirement can only serve to give ambitious prosecutors a pretext to target people for victimless actions.
(-1)
