Six arrested during county’s ‘No Refusal’ New Year’s

Six drivers were arrested for Driving While Intoxicated during Hays County’s “No Refusal” New Year’s Eve effort by law enforcement.

Two arrestees provided voluntary samples for testing, while the other four arrests required blood search warrants signed by County Court-at-Law Judge Chris Johnson.

Johnson was available at the Hays County Jail between 10 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. New Year’s Eve to review requests for warrants, and order blood draws by a phlebotomist who was present at the jail for the occasion.

The county-wide arrests where conducted by the Hays County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Public Safety, Kyle Police Department, ad San Marcos Police Department.

“Although I understand that our law enforcement officers were very busy over New Year’s, I am pleased that only six of those incidents involved arrests for DWI with no reported fatal or serious accidents,” Hays County Criminal District Attorney Wes Mau said. “While the No-Refusal Holiday will certainly help ensure the intoxicated drivers are held accountable for their decisions that night, the goal of such events is to encourage the public to think twice before drinking and driving. For that reason I hope to see no-refusal programs become the norm and that DWI arrests dwindle as more drivers avoid drinking and driving.”

This was the county’s first countywide “No-Refusal” holiday since 2013. When announcing the return of the program, Hays County District Attorney Wes Mau said, “Despite convenient ride-sharing alternatives, far too many people still choose to endanger Hays County citizens by drinking and driving. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, there were 258 driving-under-the-influence crashes in 2018 in Hays County. Over 100 people were injured and 11 killed in these crashes. Our office hopes that these No Refusal events — with the help of our dedicated law enforcement community and our hard-working magistrates — will become a common practice in our community as they are elsewhere.”

In a comment to the Century News Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler said, “I think it was a very successful operation. I’m pleased with our law enforcement efforts that night. It kept our citizens safe. I’m not aware of any deaths or serious injuries on that night. I do think people think twice about risking an arrest if they know there’s a ‘No Refusal’ in effect. I also saw wide scale support of this effort by the public.”