Kansas Law enforcement officers ready for Intoxilyzer upgrades

The new Intoxilyzer 8000 machine.

The Leavenworth Times reported that Kansas police agencies will be switching from the problem ridden Intox 5000 to the Intox 8000.  Lt. Greg Ruff, Leavenworth Police Department, said the Intoxilyzer 5000 has been around about 20 years. He listed several improvements including the new model is much smaller; the Intoxilyzer 8000’s dry gas test standard, which is used to check calibration, will last for 250 tests before having to be replaced (Georgia uses ambient air?); the dry gas standard for the Intox 5000 model could be used only for 14 tests; while the old machine has to be sent in anytime it malfunctions, the Intox 8000 can be connected to the Internet and diagnostics can be performed remotely; If the Intox 8000 has a computer programming error, it can be corrected over the Internet; the Intox 8000 will have card readers to read bar codes of modern drivers licenses; the programming for the new machines have higher security levels to prevent people from manipulating data (How long have they known test results could be manipulated?); t he new machines use multiple tones so officers can identify specific problems by the tone; for the Intoxilyzer 5000, officers have been required to re-certify themselves on the machine every six monthsm but for the Intoxilyzer 8000, officers will have to re-certify every two years (Georgia only requires recertification every four years-no wonder Georgia is 48th in education of 50 states).  Which begs the question, how many shortcuts can one state take before it comprimises testing and incarcerates the innocent.

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