Drinking/Driving Law & Procedure

This course explores the legal system’s treatment of the drinking driver, including the societal and political pressures on legislative, administrative and judicial bodies that shaped that system. The course surveys the various administrative procedures for license revocation due to drinking/driving, as well as criminal laws, procedures and techniques for investigating and prosecuting the drinking driver. The course introduces basic forensic toxicology as the science behind calculating blood alcohol levels and presents some of the more common defenses to drinking/driving charges.

The course concludes with a demonstration of the EPAS breath testing machine and a tour of the Santa Barbara County Jail courtesy of Sheriff Jim Anderson.