Getting a DUI will get someone into a lot of trouble and can cost them a lot of money. Now, in Covington it’s going to cost DUI drivers even more if their car is impounded.

According to Covington Police Chief Andrew McCurdy, Covington was a little bit behind with this ordinance.

He said pretty much all of the other cities in Washington have established this and they are just catching up.

The new ordinance states when someone gets pulled over for a DUI and the driver’s car needs to be impounded, there will be a fee up to $100.

Courtney Popp, the DUI/traffic legal adviser from Covington’s training unit said this law stems from the case of a woman by the name of Hailey French. At the time this case happened, it was protocol to leave the vehicle where it was if it was safely parked and allow the DUI driver to return in the morning to receive their car.

French left her car and then returned shortly with a spare key to drive her car home. She ended up crashing her car and seriously injuring herself.

According to Popp, the mandatory statewide impound law was passed to ensure DUI drivers were not able to easily access their cars and drive again, causing risk to the public and themselves.

Impounding a vehicle can sometimes take an officer off the road sometimes up to an hour, according to McCurdy. There have also been recent changes to make blood draw search warrants necessary for more arrests and that can also take an officer off the road for a long period of time.

“Mandatory tow also removes the need for an officer to remain on scene for extensive lengths of time to accommodate the wait for a sober driver to retrieve the vehicle,” Popp said.

McCurdy said this ordinance will help recover some of the costs since DUI arrest often result in overtime for the arresting officer. Or because someone else needs to be called, like a tow truck.

“My goal by proposing this ordinance was to recoup some of the costs related to DUI arrests and place the cost on the offender instead of the taxpayers,” McCurdy said.

“I hope to see recovery of some of the costs so that we will have more incentive to go out and find DUI drivers.”

There’s no way to tell if this new ordinance will deter offenders from driving under the influence, but McCurdy said he can anticipate some DUI drivers being upset about it.

“I think the cost is appropriately placed on the offender instead of the offender’s actions impacting my regular operating budget,” he said. “I doubt people will consider the $100 fee when they decide to drive impaired.”

The new ordinance will start to take effect in September.