Crime & Safety

'No-Refusal' Operations Due in Kane County

Kane County State's Attorney's Office, local police to launch effort on the weekend before Halloween and the night before Thanksgiving.

If you’ve been arrested for driving under the influence, you shouldn’t have been driving, period. But if you think it’s a smart move to refuse to take a breath test when you are arrested for DUI, don’t count on it.

The Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office is planning with local police to conduct three “no-refusal” operations over the next 43 days — on the weekend before Halloween and on the night before Thanksgiving — to discourage drunken driving

The first of the two operations will be Oct. 26-27 and Oct. 27-28, the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office announced in a release, and the second will be Nov. 21-22. They will begin in the evening and end after midnight.

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Many police agencies already run enhanced DUI patrols on the weekend before Halloween and the night before Thanksgiving. The “no refusal” operations give police another tool to use during DUI arrests.

According to the state’s attorney’s office release, the initiative targets those who have been arrested for DUI but refuse to submit to a lawfully requested breath test. Prosecutors and police officers work together to quickly obtain a search warrant to compel a DUI suspect to submit to a lawful blood or breath test as required by Illinois’ Implied Consent statute. The “no refusal” strategy expedites the DUI booking process.

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“Our office has a responsibility to prosecute DUI offenders and to educate the public not to drive when they drink. Our goal with ‘no-refusal’ operations is to make Kane County’s roads safer,” Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said in the release.

“The weekend before Halloween and the night before Thanksgiving traditionally are occasions for friends to get together and party,” McMahon said in the release. “We do not wish to discourage that, but we do expect that people will party responsibly. We run these operations as a reminder that when the party is over, people who have been drinking alcohol should not drive.”

Participating towns and police agencies will not be revealed in advance.

According to the release, Illinois courts have held consistently that no one has a right to refuse chemical testing when probable cause exists. Anyone who fails to submit to chemical testing after a search warrant has been obtained could face additional sanctions.


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