Ignition interlock requirements in Alabama

Alabama pairs every DUI revocation with a device period, from an elective 90 days on a first conviction to four years on a fourth. If you do not own a car, the statute charges you monthly instead.

The ladder in section 32-5A-191

Alabama writes the interlock into the same subsections that set its DUI fines and revocations, one rung per conviction. Each rung pairs a period without a license with a period on the device, and the device period is what lets a person drive again before the revocation runs out.

A first conviction

The agency suspends the license for 90 days. That suspension “shall be stayed if the offender elects to have an approved ignition interlock device installed and operating on the designated motor vehicle driven by the offender for 90 days.” The offender shows proof of installation, obtains an interlock-restricted license, and the rest of the suspension is commuted when the 90 days are completed. For most first convictions, then, the device is a choice: sit out 90 days without driving, or drive for 90 days on the device.

When a first conviction makes it mandatory

The choice disappears on a first conviction if the person refused to provide a blood alcohol concentration, if a child under 14 was a passenger, if someone other than the offender was injured, or if the alcohol concentration was 0.15 or more. Then the suspension is still 90 days, and the person “shall be required to have an ignition interlock device installed and operating” for one year from the issue of the restricted license. The year can start after 45 days of the suspension have been served, on an order from the convicting court and proof of installation.

Second, third and fourth convictions

A second conviction carries a one-year revocation and two years on the device; a third, a three-year revocation and three years on the device; a fourth or later, which is a Class C felony, a five-year revocation and four years on the device. In each case the device period can begin before the revocation ends — after 45 days for a second, 60 days for a third, and one year for a fourth — and the remainder of the revocation is commuted once the device period is completed.

What the doubling rules do not touch

Alabama doubles the minimum punishment where the alcohol concentration was 0.15 or more, and where an adult had a child under 14 in the vehicle. Both subsections end with the same sentence: they do not apply “to the duration of time an ignition interlock device is required by this section.” The device periods above are the device periods, whatever else is doubled.

How the device must be set and checked

Section 32-5A-191.4 defines the device and the standard it must meet. The system is calibrated so that the vehicle may not be started if the operator's alcohol concentration reaches 0.02. Installation, calibration and monitoring are done by trained technicians in person: “The use of a mail in or remote calibration system where the technician is not in the immediate proximity of the vehicle being calibrated is prohibited.”

Thirty days to prove installation

When a court imposes the device, it requires proof of installation to the court or a probation officer within 30 days of the date the defendant becomes eligible for the interlock-restricted license. Proof is either a certificate of installation or a copy of the lease agreement in the offender's name for the designated vehicle. Missing the 30 days without a recorded finding of good cause can lead to revocation of probation after notice and a hearing.

If you do not own a car

This is the provision people miss. A defendant who does not own a vehicle, or otherwise has no device installed on one, does not escape the device period by having nothing to fit it to. The section requires that person to pay $75 a month to the court clerk “for the entire period the defendant is required or elects to have an ignition interlock device,” unless the court finds them indigent — and they still serve every suspension and revocation in that time. The money goes to a state fund for impaired-driving education and enforcement, not to a provider.

That matters for the insurance side too. A person in that position who needs to drive later usually needs a policy that covers vehicles they do not own, and Alabama's financial responsibility chapter has one: the operator's policy. The Alabama SR-22 page covers how it is certified.

Indigent defendants

A court may find a defendant indigent for interlock purposes on an affidavit of substantial hardship, using the criteria in section 15-12-5. An indigent offender does not pay to install or maintain the device, and does not pay the non-owner monthly charge, though they still pay for violations, optional services and missing or damaged equipment. Each approved manufacturer must serve indigent defendants at no cost in a number equal to five percent of its installations in the prior calendar year, and pays a civil penalty for each one short.

Violations add time

A person restricted to an interlock may not knowingly drive, lease or borrow a vehicle without a working device, or ask anyone else to blow into it or start the vehicle for them. A first conviction for that is a Class A misdemeanor and extends the device period by six months. A second carries a mandatory 48 hours in jail and six more months; a third, five days and another year. The officer removes the driver and impounds the vehicle unless its owner, or a family member of the owner, is present with a valid license.

Blowing into a device for someone else, or tampering with or trying to circumvent one, is a separate offense punishable by up to six months in jail, a fine, or both.

The filing that runs alongside it

Alabama's proof of financial responsibility is a separate obligation under chapter 32-7. It certifies 25/50/25 and is released after 3 years, on a clean-record look-back rather than on a date. The device period and the filing period start at different points and are measured by different tests, so finishing one does not end the other. The Alabama SR-22 page covers the filing.

What this page does not cover

The Department of Forensic Sciences' rules on device approval and the agency's inspection rules are made by regulation, which this site has not read. Device prices are set by providers, not by statute.

Common questions