Bexar County DA Pushes For Texas Law which Requires Bars to Carry Non-Alcoholic Beverages

Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed is encouraging Texas lawmakers to require bars and restaurants to carry non-alcoholic beverages. She hopes the access to non-alcoholic beverages will reduce the number of drunk driving in San Antonio. The DA’s office is going to find a sponsor for their bill for when the Texas legislature assembles next week. Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg said, “Is this a cure-all? No. It’s not a cure-all to driving while intoxicated, but it is something that we hope will encourage people to drink responsibly.”

Highlander bar owner Mike Specia believes non-alcoholic beverages will just collect dust, and said he feels “its just the idea of the government, you know, getting into my business, which, which I have a problem with.”

Bexar County is active in DWI legislation, and for more than a year the entire county has a 24/7 no-refusal policy. The no-refusal policy means that someone who is arrested for driving while intoxicated is required to provide a specimen of blood or breath at the request of the officer in order to investigate that person’s blood alcohol levels. A search warrant may be produced in order to obtain a person’s blood or breath sample.

Since the “No Refusal” initiative marked a year on Sept. 30, 2012, Bexar County had 6,987 DWI arrests, and blood draws were taken in 3,298 of those cases. The “No Refusal” grant for 2013 began on October 1, 2012, and to date Bexar County has already made 1,336 DWI arrests, with 614 blood draws in those cases. There has been 1 intoxication manslaughter, 9 intoxication assualts, 23 incidents of DWI with child passenger, 123 DWI 3rd offense arrests, 185 DWI 2nd offense arrests, and 993 DWI 1st offense arrests.