HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1490        FILED ON: 1/13/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3633

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act allowing police officers to take into protective custody minors who have consumed alcohol..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1.  Section 8 of chapter 111B, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting, after line 68, the following new section:-

Any person under the age of 21 who has consumed alcohol may be assisted by a police officer with or without his consent to his residence, to a facility or to a police station.  To determine for purposes of this chapter only, whether or not such person has consumed alcohol, the police officer may request the person to submit to reasonable tests of coordination, coherency of speech, and breath.

Any person assisted by a police officer to a police station shall have the right, and be informed in writing of said right, to request and be administered a breathalyzer test.  Any person who is administered a breathalyzer test shall be presumed to have consumed alcohol if evidence from said test indicates that the percentage of alcohol in his blood is more than zero one hundredths and shall be placed in protective custody at a police station or transferred to a facility.

Any person presumed to have consumed alcohol and to be held in protective custody at a police station shall, immediately after such presumption, have the right and be informed of said right to make a phone call at his own expense and on his own behalf.  Any person assisted by a police officer to a facility under this section shall have the right to make one phone call at his own expense on his own behalf and shall be informed forthwith upon arriving at the facility of said right.  The parent or guardian of any person, under the age of eighteen, to be held in protective custody at a police station shall be notified forthwith upon his arrival at said station or as soon as possible thereafter.

If any incapacitated person is assisted to a police station, the officer in charge or his designee shall notify forthwith the nearest facility that the person is being held in protective custody.  If suitable treatment services are available at the facility department shall thereupon arrange for the transportation of the person to the facility in accordance with the provisions of section seven.

A police officer acting in accordance with the provisions of this section may use such force as is reasonably necessary to carry out his authorized responsibilities.  If the police officer reasonably believes that his safety of other persons present so requires, he may search such person and his immediate surroundings, but only to the extent necessary to discover and seize any dangerous weapons which may on that occasion be used against the officer or other person present; provided, however, that if such person is held in protective custody at a police station all valuables and all articles which may pose a danger to such person or to others may be taken from his for safekeeping and if so taken shall be inventoried.

A person assisted to a facility or held in protective custody by the police pursuant to the provisions of this section, shall not be considered to have been arrested or to have been charged with any crime.  An entry of custody shall be made indicating the date, time, place of custody, the name of the assisting officer, the name of the officer in charge, whether the person held in custody exercised his right to make a phone call, whether the person held in custody exercised his right to take a breathalyzer test, and the results of the breathalyzer test if taken, which entry shall not be treated for any purposes as an arrest or criminal record.