(WWJ) -- Michigan State Police are slowly reintroducing Datamaster breath alcohol devices across the state as an investigation into possible fraud by the vendor responsible for calibrating the devices continues.
The head of the Michigan State Police, Col. Joe Gasper, appeared before the state's Judiciary and Public Safety Committee regarding the investigation, which saw MSP pull all 203 Datamaster devices from use. The state had a contract with Intoximeters Inc. of St. Louis to calibrate the testing devices, but recently discovered several Intoximeters employees in charge of the task may have falsified records, leading to issues with several criminal cases.
MSP First Lt. Mike Shaw tells WWJ that state police have taken responsibility of recalibrating the devices themselves; 37 of the devices have returned to use.
"We're going to do it with our own personnel. And this is something that we've been looking at for a while because as these instruments become more precise, we wanted to bring it into our forensic science lab," Shaw said.
It is believed up to 52 drunk driving cases statewide could be impacted by the allegedly faulty devices.
Shaw says there were six cases at the Detroit Detention Center in which the faulty devices were used. State police said cases at seven other departments across the state could have discrepancies with the devices.
"The prosecutor was contacted and has already dismissed those particular cases," Shaw said of the Detroit cases.
Shaw says officials are working to get the machines back to high-volume areas across the state, as well as areas which may not have the medical facilities to do an alternative blood draw test.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer commended the decision to temporarily pull the devices from the field.
"We have a vendor that is a bad actor and we owe it to the people of Michigan to make sure that every dollar we spend is well-spent and also that we're getting exactly what we expect -- especially when it's coming down to issues that impact people's freedom and the safety on our roads," Whitmer said.
Gasper says authorities are still in the process of reviewing vendor records, "and will be for some time."
State Police say while the discrepancies do not directly impact or deal with the results of evidential breath tests, "it is concerning that it appears as though some certification records have been falsified. As a result, a criminal investigation is underway to look into possible forgery of public documents."
"To be clear, a properly calibrated and maintained Datamaster DMT is an extremely reliable instrument, which is why issuing the stop order, placing the instruments temporarily out-of-service and assuming responsibility for maintaining all Datamasters in the state is an extreme move that places a burden on all of the state's law enforcement resources, but it is an absolutely necessary move to safeguard the integrity of the criminal justice process," Gasper said. "Upon learning of additional and more egregious discrepancies, I am no longer comfortable having police agencies using these instruments until we can be confident they are certified, calibrated and serviced according to state law and industry standard."
MSP says if the investigation shows that any criminal acts occurred, criminal charges will be sought against those responsible.
