Breathalyzers are a drunks worst nightmare. While some may be able to disguise their intoxicated prediciment through the use of gums, foods, other drinks, or other objects, once the cop whips out a breathalyser it’s all over. Or is it? For some time now, breathalyzers have come under scrutiny from many a prosecution arguing and fighting to see the source code that powers these modern day taddle tales. However the manufacturer, CMI, has time and time again vehemently refused citing “industry and company secrets” prevent them from doing so. So, who smells a fresh pie of BS baking in the oven? I do and boy am I hungry. So now that the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that the source code must be turned over, CMI is going to happily comply right?
Wrong! See the problem is is that anyone that has a breathalyzer used on them by law has a right to see the source code. You know, that whole thing where the convicted have the ability to face the accuser, in this case the electronic breathalyzer. Though as mentioned previously, CMI stays steadfast to their claims and basically tells us that their code is foolproof. However, their have been studies that have actually shown the code behind breathalyzers to be complete crap. So, once the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that it was illegal to withold a breathalyser’s source code from the accused, many common sense minded people and a few defense lawyers politely applauded in adoration as justice was finally being served. But the celebration appears to be short lived (for now) as apparently a supreme court ruling doesn’t mean squat in this country anymore. CMI still stubbornly clinging to their stupid and baseless claim is continuing to refuse the release of the source code. Apparently the love wasting money in court.
Forgetting all of the drama and non-sense above, CMI is contradicting themselves when they claim the source code is near and dear because of “company secrets” when at other times they have claimed that the source code is merely a series of basic and “straight-forward” calculations” So which is it. Some high tech likely flawed source code? Or is it some 3rd grade formula that is still grossly flawed?
One may ask themselves, “why are they dragging this out?” It is actually pretty simple. If the breathalyser code gets released and is found to be what many suspect, crap, then breathalyzers would lose their credibility meaning an utter nightmare for law enforcement employees as they have to now deal with every person currently behind bars because of a now proven to be flawed breathalyzer meaning an ungodly amount of retrails, not to mention the quick removal or at least temporary suspension from using such devices from proably every police task force. It sounds eerily similar to e-voting machines. They had a period of peak popularity, then once the bugs and glitches started appearing when the source code was opened, the s*** storm started happening. And a county without breathalyzers is a county with less fines. And with the current economic hardships, less money is a bad thing.
So, it appears as if the ongoing drama between CMI and the Minnesota Supreme Court have all but begun. Awesome.
Source: Tech Dirt, Image Source
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