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Texas Code of Criminal Procedure - Article 17.441. Conditions Requiring Motor Vehicle Ignition Interlock

Legal Research Home > Texas Laws > Code of Criminal Procedure > Texas Code of Criminal Procedure - Article 17.441. Conditions Requiring Motor Vehicle Ignition Interlock

Art. 17.441. CONDITIONS REQUIRING MOTOR VEHICLE IGNITION 
INTERLOCK.  (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), a magistrate 
shall require on release that a defendant charged with a subsequent 
offense under Sections 49.04-49.06, Penal Code, or an offense under 
Section 49.07 or 49.08 of that code:
	(1)  have installed on the motor vehicle owned by the 
defendant or on the vehicle most regularly driven by the defendant, 
a device that uses a deep-lung breath analysis mechanism to make 
impractical the operation of a motor vehicle if ethyl alcohol is 
detected in the breath of the operator;  and
	(2)  not operate any motor vehicle unless the vehicle is 
equipped with that device.
	(b)  The magistrate may not require the installation of the 
device if the magistrate finds that to require the device would not 
be in the best interest of justice.
	(c)  If the defendant is required to have the device 
installed, the magistrate shall require that the defendant have the 
device installed on the appropriate motor vehicle, at the 
defendant's expense, before the 30th day after the date the 
defendant is released on bond.
	(d)  The magistrate may designate an appropriate agency to 
verify the installation of the device and to monitor the device.  If 
the magistrate designates an agency under this subsection, in each 
month during which the agency verifies the installation of the 
device or provides a monitoring service the defendant shall pay a 
fee to the designated agency in the amount set by the magistrate.  
The defendant shall pay the initial fee at the time the agency 
verifies the installation of the device.  In each subsequent month 
during which the defendant is required to pay a fee the defendant 
shall pay the fee on the first occasion in that month that the 
agency provides a monitoring service.  The magistrate shall set the 
fee in an amount not to exceed $10 as determined by the county 
auditor, or by the commissioners court of the county if the county 
does not have a county auditor, to be sufficient to cover the cost 
incurred by the designated agency in conducting the verification or 
providing the monitoring service, as applicable in that county.

Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 318, Sec. 45, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.  
Amended by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 537, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 
1999.

Last modified: August 11, 2007