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Sen. Tom Wyss: State diversion/deferral programs need careful scrutiny
Wyss authors Senate Bill 83, requiring prosecutors to track repeat offenders
STATEHOUSE – State Sen. Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne) says diversion and deferral programs – designed to give first-time Indiana traffic offenders a second chance – are becoming dangerous.
Wyss – author of the .08 drunk driving blood alcohol level standards and a leader in legislation designed to keep Hoosier Highways safer – today introduced legislation that would more closely monitor diversions and deferrals, exposing participants who are abusing the system where alcohol-related offenses are concerned. According to Wyss, some prosecutors across the state are using them as revenue source at the risk of Indiana motorists while some offenders are manipulating the system by getting deferrals or diversions in more than one Indiana county.
“We want to make prosecuting attorneys explain themselves when they make drivers charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated eligible for deferral programs,” Wyss said.
Wyss is joined in the effort by Sens. Brent Steele (R-Bedford) and James Arnold (D-LaPorte), who are co-authors of the bill. The legislation was endorsed by the full Interim Study Committee on Transportation Matters that Wyss chaired this summer.
Wyss’ bill would require each of the state’s 92 prosecutors to transmit to the prosecuting attorney council an abstract of each motor vehicle offense filed with their office during the previous calendar year.
That document would need to include:
- Whether the prosecuting attorney withheld prosecution against the accused person;
- Whether the action was deferred; and
- Whether the accused person was acquitted.
“Our current law makes it possible for very serious traffic offenders to participate in several programs at one time with no record of the traffic convictions on the offender’s driver history,” Wyss said. “I’ve had numerous reports of cases where OWI offenders are too easily able to get back behind the wheel, because their charge has been reduced or eliminated from the records.”
Diversion and deferral programs offer first-time offenders an opportunity to mend their ways without affecting their permanent record. In diversion programs, no charges are filed and offenders are required to pay a fine and/or complete some type of alternate programming, such education or community service. In deferral programs, charges are filed, but can be dropped upon successful completion of this programming.
Diversion and deferral programs have become a popular source of revenue for local prosecutors. Money collected through fines associated with these programs often becomes a secondary source of revenue which can be spent by prosecutors with little or no oversight.
But Wyss believes it’s gone beyond what was intended.
“It has become more about making money than protecting Hoosiers,” Wyss said. “They look at the program as a money-making machine,”
Wyss’ bill would also:
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Mandate the prosecuting attorneys council to compile the reports into a statewide document and transmit that report to the legislative council; and
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Make the reporting period run from time of passage through Jan. 1, 2014.
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