Stephanie Sanchez

KGUN 9 News.

Tucson is trying to give DUI suspects an incentive to turn themselves in. If they do show up in city court in the next month, police will drop arrest warrants they have for their failure to appear in court.

Now there will still be an arrest warrant out for their DUI charges. But the warrants for their failure to appear in court would be dropped if they show up in city court between tomorrow and July 31st. That means they would not be taken into police custody for their failure to appear warrants.

This is one of the tactics Tucson Police is using to catch DUI suspects. It's part of a new DUI campaign launched yesterday by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. "Pass the Keys", is a statewide campaign to reduce the number of alcohol-related deaths.

Officers say getting DUI offenders off the road is a major part of the campaign. Police Chief Sixto Molina of the South Tucson Police Deptartment told us, "Those people that have DUI warrants still outstanding, we're going to go find them and serve those warrants. We'll look for them at their homes, their places of employment, or any other place where we think we might find them.  The idea is to get them into the system and resolve those issues where they have not yet paid their debt to society."

Again, for those people that turn themselves in, the arrest warrant for their failure to appear will be dropped. But  they will still have to face the consequences of the DUI charge.

Posted: Thursday, June 29, 2006