State audit finds gaps in DWI reporting

More than 10 percent of Missouri's alcohol- or drug-related driving convictions are not being reported to state agencies, according to a recent state audit. This means some drivers found guilty of endangering the lives of others are escaping tougher laws that mandate license suspension, counseling or jail terms.

Auditors reviewed 205 such convictions generated over six months in 20 counties throughout the state and found that 184 were properly handled.

Cape Girardeau County was not included in the study.

Circuit clerks in Dade, Dunklin, Iron, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Newton, Pemiscot, Ripley and St. Louis counties reported all conviction information as required.

St. Louis County uses an automated system that generates conviction information nightly for all reportable offenses. Circuit clerk personnel at other audited locations generally do not have an automated system for reporting information.

Perry and Ralls counties were listed as not turning over any felony cases to the Department of Revenue. Perry only had two such cases during the audit period.

Drug- and alcohol-related driving violations, tried at the judicial circuit level, are then referred to such agencies as the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Department of Revenue or Department of Mental Health to carry out state laws dealing with such crimes. But without notification from circuit court clerks, they have no knowledge of the driving violations and circuit court sentences.

As Missouri began tightening its illegal driving laws and enacting stiffer penalties in the 1990s, an earlier investigation of reporting practices, conducted in 1998, found that 36 percent of all such convictions had not been reported to state agencies. This finding brought increased efforts in seeing that dangerous drivers experienced the full effects of more stringent penalties mandated by revised statutes.

Noncompliance was attributed to circuit clerk oversight in numerous jurisdictions.

The most recent training session for circuit clerks on reporting conviction information was in August.

The Office of State Courts Administrator has begun automating reports of convictions submitted by circuit clerks, and, according to officials in the agency, if appropriations continue at the present rate, the necessary software should be installed within five or six years in all circuit courts in Missouri.

Alcohol- and drug-related driving offenses classified as Class D felonies include driving while intoxicated, driving with excessive blood-alcohol content and county or municipal traffic violations involving drugs or alcohol.