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Breathalyzer Usage for Medical Purposes Policy

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to establish the criteria and procedures for maintaining the breathalyzer, administering breathalyzer tests, and reporting usage.

Policy

The administration of breathalyzer tests is intended for use by authorized College personnel for medical treatment considerations and is NOT intended for the use by law enforcement for criminal prosecution.

Authorized Use

Breathalyzer tests may be administered when any of the following circumstances are present:

• If a person is displaying symptoms of an alcohol overdose, a breath test may be requested for medical assessment purposes to determine if alcohol is actually present, and if so, what is the person’s BAC level.
• If a person is displaying characteristics of being intoxicated and there is reason to believe that the person may be in danger of reaching an unsafe BAC, a test may be requested to determine the BAC.

Refusal

Any person requested to submit to a breath test may refuse the test. This will be noted in the incident report.

Required Medical Treatment

Any person who by way of a breath test has a BAC of .20% or higher, will be considered at risk for an alcohol overdose and medical treatment will be required. Persons who meet the criteria for required medical treatment will be assessed by a trained medical professional (i.e. EMT, registered nurse, physician, etc.) and an ambulance will be summoned to transport the person to a local medical facility for treatment. Any person who display symptoms of serious medical distress and have a BAC of less than .20%, were unable to submit to a breath test, or refused to submit to a breath test may also be referred for medical treatment.

Reports

In addition to all the information related to an incident, officers will report in the incident report all relative information related to a request, request refusal, and usage of a breathalyzer, including the BAC reading.