Ignition devices might be required in CA for first-time DUIs

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(The Center Square) – Being convicted of a drunk or impaired driving offense even one time in California could now result in lengthier driving restrictions, and makes permanent a state law that requires the installation of ignition interlock devices in the cars of DUI drivers.

Assembly Bill 1830, authored by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, would require ignition interlock devices to be installed in the cars of someone convicted of a DUI after the first offense.

“The bill before us replaces a limited, repeatedly-extended pilot program with one permanent statewide ignition interlock devices program,” Petrie-Norris said in a Senate Public Safety Committee meeting on Tuesday morning. “This consolidates years of overlapping and sometimes conflicting statute into a single, coherent framework.”

According to Petrie-Norris, 35 other states also have permanent ignition interlock device requirements for all convicted drivers, including first-time drivers. Her bill would also require a 6-month-long driver’s license suspension after the first DUI offense. For first-time offenders who cause bodily injury after driving drunk, their license would be suspended for one year.

Under current law, first-time offenders can be required to have an ignition interlock device installed in their cars for up to six months. Second-time DUI drivers are required to have an ignition interlock device for one year, and those convicted of subsequent DUI convictions can be required to have one for three years, according to the bill analysis.

Depending on the brand of ignition interlock device, it can cost DUI drivers $90 to $116 a month, since such devices are leased, not bought. Installation can cost $50 to $150, and they have to be recalibrated every 60 days, which comes with its own costs. California has a program for those whose income level falls at or below the federal poverty level where up to 90% of the costs of an ignition interlock device are covered by the state. 

There are sentences imposed by this law on those convicted of drug-only DUI offenses, too, according to the bill analysis. The number of prior DUI convictions and special circumstances in each case could increase the amount of time a driver’s license is suspended for up to 60 months, according to a legislative analysis of the bill.

One of Petrie-Norris’s 2025 bills, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law, extended the sunset date on a pilot program under the California Department of Motor Vehicles that stipulates that first-time DUI offenders may be required to install ignition interlock devices in their cars. The sunset date on that program is now Jan. 1, 2033.

Those who testified in support of the bill on Tuesday said that many times, multiple DUI offenders could have been prevented from continuing to drink and drive if they had been required to install an ignition interlock device in their cars after their first conviction. Because judges often had discretion over whether to impose that sentence on first-time offenders, some continued to get behind the wheel after drinking – to deadly ends.

“The woman who killed my children has multiple DUIs,” Colin Campbell, a board member at Mothers Against Drunk Driving and father of two teenagers who died in a drunk driving accident, testified in the committee meeting on Tuesday. “There was a warrant out for her arrest for violation of probation on a previous DUI. Nothing was going to stop her from drinking and driving that night except a bill like AB 1830.”

Those who opposed the bill on Tuesday testified that requiring many first-time DUI offenders to install an ignition interlock device in their car will affect individuals who are not likely to reoffend.

“Current law allows a judge to impose an IID on a first-time offense based on the circumstance of that specific case,” Ignacio Hernandez, an attorney who represented California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, testified in opposition. “We believe that is a better policy.”

The bill hearing follows a July 2026 announcement from the California Highway Patrol that the agency was awarding $41 million in taxpayer-funded grants to local law enforcement agencies, crime labs, local governments and nonprofits across the state to combat impaired driving.

The money came from Proposition 64, which California voters passed in 2016 and made marijuana legal under state law. Under Prop. 64, the California Highway Patrol is required to spend grant money on impaired driving education, prevention and enforcement.

The bill passed the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday and now heads to the Senate Transportation Committee.