City of Austin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERelease Date:
Contact: Public Information Office 512-974-5017 Email
The Austin Police Department (APD), in partnership with overtime grants provided by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and no-refusal funding through the City of Austin Transportation Department, conducted a no-refusal DWI initiative from Friday, December 18, 2020 through Sunday, January 3, 2021. The effort ran nightly from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. with a focus on proactively encouraging drivers to make responsible decisions, enforcing DWI laws and applying for blood search warrants for suspects who refused to provide breath or blood specimen as required by law.
Over the holiday period, APD made 119 DWI-related arrests:
- 35 consent breath samples
- 25 consent blood samples
- 59 blood search warrants
Of those 119 arrests, 19 of the consent breath samples were over .15, 14 of the suspects had a prior DWI conviction and 12 of the suspects had two or more prior DWI convictions.
The Austin Police Department is dedicated to making all modes of travel safe for residents and visitors throughout our city. As such, no-refusal will continue on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., through January 2021.