JCF gets 50 breathalyser kits from D&G Foundation

Fifty new breathalyser kits were handed over to the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch at their headquarters in Kingston by the D&G Foundation today.

Dianne Ashton-Smith, director of the D&G Foundation, said her organisation is committed to promoting safe alcohol consumption and partnering with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is one step in exercising their corporate social responsibility.

"We want to ensure that when people consume alcohol, they consume it responsibly, but we also want to protect our roads, so we thought what better way than to partner, as we believe for us to reduce the misuse of alcohol, it takes the whole society," she said.

Head of the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch, Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary McKenzie, welcomed the kits that will further increase the branch's capacity to target drivers who operate vehicles while intoxicated.

"These kits will impact us in a substantial way; the further we are able to distribute to stations, the wider coverage we will have," he said.

The kits, valued at approximately $3.5 million, will enable easy, fast and reliable breath alcohol detection and improve the capacity of the JCF to address road safety.

The breathalysers work by a chemical reaction in the breathalyser device and the alcohol on a person's breath.

The breath alcohol concentration should not exceed the legal limit of 35 micrograms per 100 ml of breath.

Following this preliminary exam, if an individual's blood alcohol concentration exceeds the legal limit, they are detained and brought to the station where a more comprehensive test is conducted by the Intoxilozer 800 for a printout of the information that will be used as evidence in court.

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