Seattle (Jan. 23, 2025) – Today, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison announced her support of HB 1228, a legislative bill that would significantly improve prosecution of DUI cases in Seattle and throughout the state.
Introduced in the Washington State Legislature last week by House members David Hackney and Andrew Barkis, the bill would amend state law to allow certified private laboratories to test blood draw samples in DUI cases. Current law specifies testing be done only by the Washington State Toxicology Lab, which currently has a severe backlog of samples.
City Attorney Davison has been advocating for legislative solutions to address this deficiency and strongly encouraged the introduction of HB 1228. The City Attorney also provided input as the bill was being developed and finalized.
“This is a matter of public safety in Seattle and throughout the state because, right now, it takes more than 400 days to get the results of a tox test from the state lab,” said City Attorney Davison. “These test results are usually necessary to prove a DUI charge beyond a reasonable doubt, particularly when more than half the DUI cases now involve drugs. The inefficiency of the current system means that cases sit idle or may become severely weakened.”
Other states, including Oregon, Colorado, New York, and New Jersey, allow testing by federally accredited private toxicology labs.
“This is a dual-look at government efficiency and inefficiency – focusing on what is working and identifying what is not, then addressing what can be done to positively impact public safety.”
City Attorney Davison said the urgency to prosecute DUI cases as efficiently as possible is clear:
- Since 2014, there has been an approximate 50-percent increase in cases submitted to the state tox lab.
- During that time, DUI-related fatalities in Washington have risen 96-percent.
- Each year, the Seattle Police Department refers more than 1,000 DUI cases to City Attorney Davison’s office. More than half those cases involve drugs, not alcohol.
“The state backlog means we are just now receiving results for DUI arrests that occurred in the first half of 2023,” said City Attorney Davison. “If a possible DUI is referred by Seattle police to my office today, based on the current backlog, results likely will not arrive until sometime in 2026. And with a two-year statute of limitations from the time of arrest, the clock is ticking while our prosecutors can do nothing on the case but wait.”
According to City Attorney Davison, the delay creates several impediments in the pursuit of justice:
- A DUI suspect will likely go unsupervised, possibly driving impaired again during that time.
- Witnesses may move away or be unavailable.
- Juries may find it hard to understand why they are hearing about a case from so long ago.
“Legislators must pass this bill to allow alternatives to process the blood samples so we, as a society, can better send the message that we take our road safety seriously and will hold accountable anyone putting all of us at risk because of impaired driving.”
Note: City Attorney Davison’s Dec. 26, 2024 Seattle Times op-ed on HB 1228 can be read on the website of the City Attorney’s Office here.