What’s the Difference Between Ignition Interlock and SCRAM?

Hello everyone. I’m Deandra Grant, and this is the Ask Deandra video series, where I answer the most commonly searched questions about Texas DWI law on the internet. This video series corresponds with my Ask Deandra blog series, so the link to the blog related to this particular video is down in the description if you want more information.

Today’s question is: what is the difference between a SCRAM device and an ignition interlock device? Good question. A lot of people don’t really understand what they get ordered to have. And there’s also a third option, which is a portable device. So let’s talk about all three.

When you are arrested for DWI in Texas, if you are a repeat offender, if it’s a felony DWI, which could be a DWI with a child in the car, or you’ve had multiple DWIs and now it’s a felony, or you’re charged with intoxication manslaughter or intoxication assault, or you’re charged with a misdemeanor DWI where your alcohol concentration is 0.15 or greater, then there is a very high likelihood that you are going to be ordered to have some sort of alcohol monitoring device as part of your conditions of bond. This is before your case is resolved. It has nothing to do with you being on probation or anything of that nature. It is literally to supervise you while your case is pending.

So what are the options? The most common thing that a judge can order is the ignition interlock device. That is a device that you would have installed on your car, and you have to blow into it every time you start your car. In many instances, while you’re driving, you will have to do rolling retests. And if you’re not driving your car, it’s not uncommon for the bond supervision officers to tell you, well, you’ve got to blow into your interlock device at least three times a day. So it’s kind of weird. You would have to go out to your car, start it, blow in the device, then get back out of your car and go back in the house. Sometimes we have clients whose licenses are suspended and they’re not driving the car, but they still have to go blow in the device. There is not a lot of logic to this. We also have clients that get ordered to have ignition interlock devices when the allegation is that they were driving while intoxicated on some drug, not alcohol at all. So try to make sense out of that.

Let’s say you don’t have a car. You got a DWI in a car that wasn’t yours, or you had an accident and your car has been totaled. You don’t have a car anymore. Well, you still have to be monitored, so there are two options the judge has. They can give you what’s called a portable device, which is just what it sounds like. It’s just like the device that’s in your car, except that you carry it around with you and it doesn’t have anything to do with starting a car. It’s just going to register alcohol, and you have to blow into it, usually on some schedule. They’ll give you a schedule of how many times you have to blow into it and at what time, and then it records a reading, and that data is sent in to the monitoring company. On your interlock device in your car, that data is going to be uploaded every month when you go get the instrument calibrated.

Now, there’s another kind of device. This device is usually ordered on people that are repeat offenders, have been in a serious accident, or who are on bond with interlock devices but keep getting interlock violations. And that is a SCRAM device. You may have seen it a lot of times; celebrities are photographed with one on their ankle. It is literally an ankle bracelet. It is not particularly comfortable. I’ve had to wear one before, not because I was arrested for DWI, but because I was doing an experiment at a legal seminar. It goes on your ankle, it stays there all the time, and about every 30 minutes it takes a reading of transdermal alcohol, like alcohol coming off your skin if you have any. It does a reading of your skin, and what it’s looking for is evidence of transdermal alcohol.

When you drink alcohol and it is absorbed into your body and metabolized, one of the ways it’s eliminated, a very, very tiny amount of it, is off your skin. If you’ve ever been around somebody that drank a whole lot the night before and then they’re at work the next day, you get in an elevator with them or you sit down next to them and you smell alcohol. It could be they have alcohol still on their clothing because they didn’t take a shower, or it could be coming from their breath. But it’s also possible this might be coming from their skin. Very small amounts. So if you have been drinking alcohol, then it’s a delayed process. It’s anywhere from 30 minutes to 120 minutes delayed past a blood alcohol reading, but there’s going to be a transdermal alcohol reading.

A judge may put that device on you, and in very serious cases we often see clients that get ordered to have both an interlock device in their car and a transdermal device. They want both.

Now, some of the problems with SCRAM, other than it being incredibly uncomfortable and how annoying it is when it takes a reading, because it vibrates, is that it can be very much influenced by your environment. If you’re around a lot of solvents, chemicals, or even ethanol, for instance if you work somewhere in the alcohol industry, that device can’t tell the difference. So it’s really subject to a lot of issues. I wouldn’t call it false positives, because it is reading a volatile. It’s just not reading alcohol you drank. So we have problems sometimes with SCRAM.

We’ve actually got a program. We put our clients through a series of videos training them up on SCRAM, ignition interlock, and handheld devices to try to prevent them from doing anything that might give them a positive reading and cause them to have a hearing in front of a judge.

So those are basically the three devices that are currently on the market. I will say I have seen a prototype of a SCRAM device that looked like an Apple Watch. It was to wear on your wrist, and it was a whole lot more comfortable than the one that is on your ankle. But I have not seen that deployed yet in the market. If it works, it would be a much better option than a SCRAM device.

Hopefully you find this useful. If you want more information about any of those devices, then just take a look at our blog that is linked in the description. Take care, and we’ll see you next time.