D.C. had only one working breath-testing machine over the summer, and police believe that may have resulted in fewer charges of driving under the influence.
Since July, police have only been able to administer breath tests at the Fourth District Headquarters.
"For a police department in the nation’s capital to only have one Intoximeter for its impaired driver program, that’s just unacceptable,” police union chairman Delroy Burton said.
The D.C. attorney general informed judges and defense attorneys the breath-test program was suspended in July because the person in charge of the program at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner quit.
The chief medical examiner hired a replacement and is training more people to maintain the testing machines.
Police continue to enforce drunken driving laws using blood and urine tests and the one working breath test.
In 2011, a similar problem with testing equipment forced the city to stop doing breath tests for more than two years. Hundreds of DUI arrests were challenged in court, and the city paid out more than $300,000 to people who sued after being convicted using the faulty machines.
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The police union warns the new problem could jeopardize pending DUI cases.
"If there is a question about the reliability of the results, then you may not get that quick resolution,” he said. “You will have to go to trial and the city will have to prove that the machine has been properly calibrated and is reliable and it’s accurate.”
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner hopes to have all the breath tests operational by Oct. 3, a spokesperson said.
