DRUNKEN DRIVERS' CARS TO BE SEIZED AT ARRESTS

NEW YORK -- In what city officials described as the toughest municipal
policy against drunken driving in the nation, the New York City Police
Department will begin seizing cars from people arrested on charges of
drunken driving, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced Saturday.

The plan, which is to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday, will allow a police
officer to seize a suspect's car where it is stopped, regardless of the
driver's circumstances.

``This will be a very, very useful way to reduce even more the number of
traffic fatalities in the city,'' Giuliani said at a news conference at
police headquarters in lower Manhattan.

City officials first floated the seizure plan about a month ago. Since
then, Giuliani said, he had Michael Hess, the city's corporation counsel,
study the legal ramifications to make sure that the plan would survive what
the mayor said were almost inevitable court challenges from civil liberties
groups.

Legal experts said the initiative raised constitutional issues but could
act as a deterrent.

Draconian but effective?

``If you can put the driver in jail for being drunk while driving, it seems
to me there's no greater deprivation in taking the instrumentality of that
crime from him,'' said Richard Uviller, a professor of criminal law at
Columbia University Law School. ``It's a Draconian measure, there's no
question about it. But if people know they could lose their cars if they
drink too much, they may not drive them, and that could be very effective.''

Laws in 22 states, including California, authorize municipal officials to
confiscate the cars of drunken drivers, but virtually all those laws
involve repeat offenders, officials with the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration have said.

New York law allows the seizure of vehicles owned by drivers who repeatedly
drive while intoxicated, but that law has rarely been enforced. In taking
the initiative, New York City is expanding a city forfeiture law that
municipalities use to cut down on drug trafficking and prostitution.

Court challenges

The leaders of civil liberties groups bristled Saturday at Giuliani's plan
and promised to seek constitutional challenges to it in court.

Last year, the New York City police made 6,368 arrests for driving while
intoxicated, in which a driver's blood alcohol level is 0.10 percent or
higher. (The level is 0.08 percent in California.) In New York, drivers can
also be stopped for driving while impaired, in which the threshold for
blood alcohol is 0.06 percent to 0.09 percent.

But the new seizure policy will only affect driving while intoxicated, said
Police Commissioner Howard Safir.

The mayor's plan was enthusiastically endorsed by a representative of
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a national organization that has long
advocated harsher penalties for drunken drivers.

``Drunk driving is a violent crime, and the weapon of choice is a vehicle.
Does MADD have any sympathy for the drunk drivers who may lose their
expensive cars? Absolutely not,'' said Maureen Fisher-Riccardella,
president of the New York state chapter of the organization, who stood
beside Giuliani during the news conference.