Bill H.44 would create impaired-driving processing task force to study 'implied consent' and shorten police encounters

Ben Novogrowski, legislative counsel in the Office of Legislative Council, told the committee that the central component of H.44 for the group’s review is section 5, which would create an Impaired Driving Processing Task Force to study the concept of implied consent and recommend ways to shorten law-enforcement encounters and reduce processing paperwork.

Novogrowski said H.44 also includes technical corrections and alignment between the criminal DUI statute and the civil license-suspension process, noting one example: the bill would align civil-suspension liability with the criminal threshold so that a civil suspension applies at a blood-alcohol concentration of "0.08 or above," rather than only when the measured reading is strictly greater than 0.08.

"Really, the only portion in my assessment that really concerns this committee is section 5, which is the creation of the impaired driving, processing task force," Novogrowski said. He described the task force’s membership as six seats including the chief judge of the superior court, the defender general or designee, the commissioner of public safety or designee, the commissioner of motor vehicles or designee, the executive director of the department of state's attorneys and sheriffs (or designee), and a representative from the Vermont Police Association. The task force, Novogrowski said, would receive scheduling and writing assistance from the Department of Public Safety and would be required to issue a report by Nov. 15; the body would cease to exist on Feb. 1 of the following year.

Representative Thomas Oliver (House Judiciary), who described himself as a long-time practitioner, provided detailed examples of how current implied-consent and processing procedures lengthen encounters. "The documentation required on contact with a DUI starts right there, page 1," Oliver said, showing a multi-page processing form he said officers must complete in the field. He explained that the form includes initial contact details, Miranda warnings, an interview sequence and repeated lawyer-contact logs — steps he said can take one to several hours, and which can make obtaining a timely breath sample difficult.

"Implied consent is pretty lengthy. It's pretty difficult to understand," Oliver said, adding that people who are moderately or severely intoxicated frequently cannot reliably complete the statutory consent process and often ask to consult counsel, which can require multiple telephone calls and further delay testing. Oliver framed the task force as an opportunity to examine which data and procedures are actually used in court and which statutory steps could be streamlined while remaining constitutional.

Committee members asked procedural and policy questions. Representative Nugent asked, "curious what prompted the creation of this task force," and lawmakers discussed whether the Department of Public Safety would lead logistics; Novogrowski said the department would assist and that members who are not otherwise compensated could receive reimbursement for attendance. Members noted the committee’s next step: the bill was on notice to go to the floor and, according to discussion in the meeting, later moved toward the appropriations committee.

No formal committee vote on H.44 occurred during the discussion captured in the transcript. Counsel agreed to post the current draft for committee members; Novogrowski said he would put the strike-all amendment on the screen and send an electronic copy to committee staff for posting.

The committee discussion centered on information-gathering and potential reforms rather than enactment of a specific new procedure at the meeting. The task force described in section 5 would examine constitutional and statutory requirements for implied consent, how those requirements affect the duration of stops, and methods to minimize statutory procedures while preserving constitutionality; it would also examine practices in other states and return legislative recommendations in its November report.