No breathalyzers in county

By: By KATE McCARDELL Floridan Staff Writer | Jackson County Floridan
Published: June 12, 2009

For about two weeks, there hasn’t been a breathalyzer machine available to any law enforcement agency in Jackson County. According to Major Donnie Branch of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, local authorities have had only one usable machine “for a long time.”
That machine, held by the Marianna Police Department, broke a couple of weeks ago, Marianna Police Chief Hayes Baggett said Thursday.
Baggett said he’s hopeful that it will be fixed in the next six weeks or so, but he noted that the machine isn’t necessary to enforce DUI laws.
“It’s a tool to collect more evidence for a case. Just because there’s no machine doesn’t mean you can’t be charged with DUI,” Baggett said.
Branch said that, at one point, the sheriff's office had a machine, but gave it to the Jackson County Correctional Facility.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement then collected it from the jail, he said, leaving the entire county, including police departments and highway patrol, with one working breathalyzer machine.
Baggett said personnel in his department discovered the machine wouldn’t power up a few weeks ago, and that it was mailed off to be fixed last Friday.
“I was kicking around the idea of purchasing another one, but they cost like $8,000 each. It’s not as expensive to get them fixed. So I decided we’d better get this one fixed first,” Baggett said.
In the mean time, Baggett is working on getting a loaner machine from FDLE.
He said local authorities will likely be able to utilize other counties’ machines in the event of an emergency.