John Tuohy

john.tuohy@indystar.com

A new alcohol detection device the size of a cellphone is keeping people arrested for drunken driving on the straight and narrow in Indianapolis.

The Real Time Alcohol Detection and Recognition (RADAR) monitor is currently assigned to about 200 people awaiting trial on DUI charges or convicted of felony drunken driving, said Marion Superior Court Judge Bill Nelson.

The device is carried at all times and operates as a mobile breath test. When it vibrates, that’s the user’s cue to blow into it. RADAR takes a “breath print” and measures the pulse and vibrations of the lips to determine whether someone has been drinking.

“It takes the reading in real time from anywhere,” Nelson said. It also has a GPS tracker so community corrections officials know, for example, if the user is in a bar.

RADAR is made by Emerge Monitoring, whose executive director is Brian Barton, the former director of Marion County Community Corrections.

“The clients really like that they can carry it around with them and can go about their day and don’t have to be at home to be tested,” like the system it replaced, Barton said.

Those awaiting trial on drunken driving charges are commonly ordered to abstain from drug or alcohol use, and failing to do so could land them in jail. Those convicted but not imprisoned for drunken driving are usually ordered to stay away from booze as a condition of their release or face the prospect of being sent to prison.

Nelson said the device serves as an effective deterrent.

“We don’t see very many violations filed,” he said. “I had one person who got his fifth DUI arrest, and he has been on it for six months without violating.”

Nelson presides in felony court, and he orders the tracker for people with prior drunken driving felonies.

The system replaces the Mitsubishi Electronic Monitoring Station (MEMS 3000), a black box to which a straw is attached. A camera inside the box aims at the user as he blows into it. The alcohol “score” and picture are transmitted through a telephone line to the Marion County Community Corrections Department.

MEMS replaced a system called SCRAM, for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, an ankle bracelet that measured sweat on the skin every 30 minutes for the presence of alcohol.

Call Star reporter John Tuohy at (317) 444-6418. Follow him on Twitter: @john_tuohy.