By: Edward Zych

As the Marion County, Indiana Fatal Alcohol Crash Team Prosecutor, part of my duty is to respond to the scene of fatal OWl and serious bodily injury crashes. In the course of my experience, it is my opinion that the development of a close working relationship with the police agencies in your county is critical to the prosecution of your case. When prosecuting an OWl case involving death or injury, time is of the essence in the gathering of evidence of intoxication.

One agency in particular has been instrumental in the gathering of evidence for the cases that I prosecute. The Indiana State Excise Police is empowered with the duty to regulate and limit the manufacture, sale, possession, and use of alcohol and alcoholic beverages in the State of Indiana. My team has developed a close working relationship with this agency and it has proven critical in a few of my cases.

One critical aspect of the powers that the Indiana State Excise Police have is that they have the power to enter the premises of any business that has an alcohol permit and seize any documentation or video that they need without a search warrant. If we are able to ascertain that our suspect was drinking at a bar or a restaurant, we have called out Indiana State Excise Officers and they have gone to these establishments and gathered video evidence, credit card receipts and also have taken statements from servers and bartenders for us. Where other police agencies would need a search warrant for many of these materials, the Indiana State Excise Police are able to gather this information without the use of a warrant within hours or even minutes of our crash.

The evidence and data that we collect as part of our investigation is also shared with the Indiana State Excise Police to help them in their investigation of an establishment that may have violated Indiana liquor laws. Thus, the working relationship benefits all parties involved.

In thee summer of 2005, the FACT team first worked with the Indiana State Excise Police the same day as the Indianapolis 500 race that year, a Defendant was driving while impaired and speeding. This Defendant flipped his car and ejected his passenger who was killed. Officers at the scene determined that the Defendant had been drinking at a local restaurant close to the crash. Officers from the Indiana State Excise Police were called out to help in the investigation and were able to gather credit card receipts which showed that in three hours the Defendant had accumulated around a $350 bar bill. Also, based on their investigation, the Indiana State Excise Police were able to determine that this restaurant knowingly served the Defendant and others with him while underage. Because of their investigation, I was able to successfully prosecute this Defendant. This restaurant also lost their liquor license for one month which is one of the longest suspensions the Indiana State Excise Police have ever obtained.

Far too often Prosecutor's Offices and police agencies do not have a good working relationship. This does a disservice to the citizens of our counties that expect the very best we have to prosecute our cases. When a prosecutor's office takes the time to work with police agencies in their county to develop a good working relationship, better evidence is gathered which leads to much stronger cases for the prosecution.

Editor's Note: Edward Zych is the Fatal Alcohol Crash Team (FA.C.T.) Assistant Prosecutor for the Marion County Prosecutor's Office. This office includes the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. He has been assigned to that position for the past three years and he has been a prosecutor for over 5 years.

For Michigan, the "Excise Police" would be part of the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. In some states, the Liquor Control Commission is known as the Alcohol Beverage Control Boards, thus ABCs.