WORK GROUP MEETS IN MADISON TO CONTINUE WORKING ON OWI LAW CHANGES
On Monday, 1/12/09, the OWI workgroup met to continue the discussion of changes to the current OWI statutes. This group is chaired by Representative Peggy Krusick. Senator Alberta Darling and Representatives Jim Ott, and Joel Kleefisch were present as well. Those state agencies attending and contributing included: DOT; Leg Council; Legislative Reference Bureau; local government officials (Alliance of cities, League of Municipalities and the Counties Association); the Public Defenders Office; Law Enforcement officials (Milwaukee County, Dane County and Iowa County Sheriff's Offices and state of Wisconsin police chiefs represented by the head of the Police Chiefs Association); the Court system (both county and state); UW Health Care Initiative - AWARE; the Tavern League of Wisconsin; the Prosecutors Office of Milwaukee and Dane Counties, the District Attorneys Association, Dane County, and WI Association of State Prosecutors); UW Resource Center on Impaired Driving;, and UW Professors, Dept. of Psychology and Law. Judy and Paul Jenkins, parents of Jennifer Bukosky, also attended this meeting.
Items on the agenda included criminalizing the 1st OWI offense, lifting the ban on sobriety checkpoints, and providing for ignition interlock devices as a deterrent to repeat offensers.
The group will meet again on 1/30/09, at noon, in Madison.
