“Significant bodily intrusions”: A theoretical exploration of law enforcement phlebotomy and the creation of the patient/suspect

Abstract

In at least 18 states in the USA, law enforcement officers draw blood from motorists they suspect of driving while impaired. This article presents a conceptual and theoretical investigation of law enforcement phlebotomy, a novel example of the blurred boundaries between healthcare and policing in the medico-legal borderland. As law enforcement's logics of security collide with healthcare's logics of care, the impaired driver becomes the patient/suspect, a fraught subject position produced by the coalescence of two dissimilar professional dispositions in the law enforcement phlebotomist. The vulnerability of the patient/suspect subject position demands from the law enforcement phlebotomist the same level of care provided by clinicians in healthcare settings. Although curbing impaired driving should continue to be a national priority, this tool of police power deserves scrutiny.

Keywords

law enforcement phlebotomy impaired driving medico-legal borderland field logics patient/suspect

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