Arizona DUI Ignition Interlock Law under new scrutiny

I appears that the new potential ignition interlock device law in Arizona was enacted based on guesses and bad information. This is how much of the DUI law in Arizona is made… by gut reaction and guesswork.

Quoted from http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/55181.php:

DUI interlock bill casts too wide a net | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

Last month, the Arizona House of Representatives committed the offense of "legislating under the Influence" - not under the influence of alcohol or drugs but of incomplete and erroneous information. We hastily adopted a new policy requiring first time non-extreme DUI offenders to drive with an ignition interlock (alcohol tester) on their car for a year. The research evidence did not support this change. It is a mistake we are trying to correct. We did not enact this major policy change using our usual process of committee hearings, staff reports, public input and media scrutiny. Instead, it was tacked onto another bill at the last minute. Its well-meaning sponsor said that research from New Mexico supported its effectiveness. Many of us, myself included, reluctantly accepted his research and voted for the change. Afterward, to relieve my uneasiness, I began to look into the interlock on my own. I first read a newspaper article in which the interlock's sponsor admitted, "other factors could have attributed to the decrease in DUI arrests (in New Mexico)." The evidence that it worked in New Mexico suddenly became, in the sponsor's own words, "an educated guess." I became more concerned.