NYC CAR SEIZURES CALLED `DRACONIAN'

NEW YORK -- To the dismay of civil libertarians, New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani is on the law-and-order warpath again, this time targeting drunken
drivers--and their cars.

A tough new policy went into effect this week under which police can arrest
a drunken driver and seize his car immediately, and possibly indefinitely,
if the driver has a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent or greater. The
policy applies whether it's a first-time or a repeat offender, and the car
can be seized upon arrest.

Drivers also can be stopped if their driving appears to be impaired.

Civil liberties groups are promising to challenge the campaign as an
unconstitutional seizure of property without due process of law, such as a
hearing.

Minutes after the policy went into effect early Sunday, police began making
random checks of vehicles, from Manhattan to Staten Island. In the
Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, for example, police set up a checkpoint on a
main thoroughfare. All drivers were observed for possible alcohol use and
questioned.

By Monday afternoon, there were four arrests and three automobile seizures,
a NYPD spokesman said.

"Automobiles that are driven by drivers who are intoxicated are dangerous.
They are instruments of a crime," Giuliani said of the new campaign.

The car seizure is based on the city's forfeiture law. If the drivers are
convicted on drunken-driving charges, their cars will be auctioned off. If
they are acquitted, the vehicles likely will be returned.

"If you've had even one drink, you should find somebody else to drive your
automobile or you should stay where you are, or use public transportation,"
said Giuliani, who is considered a possible Republican candidate for the
U.S. Senate next year.

There were 6,368 arrests of drunken drivers in New York's five boroughs last
year.

The New York policy is much stricter than most state statutes that govern
drunken driving. Some 22 states allow local police to seize a drunken
driver's automobile if that person is a repeat offender.

In Illinois, a drunken driver's car can be confiscated if that person has
three or more drunken-driving convictions. The state also allows police to
impound a vehicle for a limited time after a drunken-driving arrest.

Critics of the New York policy lashed out at Giuliani for being harsh.

"I think it's excessive and unfair," said Norman Siegel, executive director
of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The police should not be in the
business of being judge, jury and used-car salesman." Siegel said he expects
a court challenge.

"It sounds a little Draconian to me," said Columbia University criminal law
professor Vivian Berger, a former district attorney in New York. "What is so
wrong is that is assumes that the person is guilty and the police take the
car immediately. That person may need to get to work."

Berger noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that law-enforcement
agencies must hold hearings before seizing a citizen's personal property
unless there is an emergency.

"I have no brief for drunken drivers," she added. "But there are other
things that one can do. They (the city) might want to have hearings before
initiating this new policy."

Maureen Fischer-Ricardella, head of the New York chapter of Mothers Against
Drunk Driving, applauded the idea, saying that confiscating a drunken
driver's car was less of a danger than "losing one's life" from one.

Mitchell Moss, director of the New York-based Taub Urban Research Center,
said the campaign is a sensible way to take drunken drivers off New York's
streets.

"This is good because Giuliani has made this city safe and now the highways
will be safe," he said. "It will keep the visitors safe and people who are
drinking will take cars and limousine services."

Some of the mayor's other "zero-tolerance" campaigns have targeted car
window washers known as "squeegee men," unqualified taxi drivers, Times
Square sex shops, street vendors and artists, jaywalkers, and vicious dogs.