First Advisor

Emily Shafer

Term of Graduation

January 2025

Date of Publication

1-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Subjects

ethics, impaired driving, law enforcement phlebotomy, patient-suspect, policing

Physical Description

1 online resource ( pages)

Abstract

This three-paper dissertation explores law enforcement phlebotomy, the ability of law enforcement officers to draw blood. Phlebotomy is both a ubiquitous, invasive diagnostic tool as well as a social site with complex relational dynamics at play between phlebotomist and patient. Through law enforcement phlebotomy, the blood draw is co-opted from the medical field into the policing field, and the normative framework through which it is used changes: whereas medical edicts instruct providers to work with patients through an ethics of care—respecting consent and refusal—policing is not similarly bound, instead operating through a prioritization of security and efficiency. In the articles that follow, I establish sociological inquiry into law enforcement phlebotomy through a theoretical analysis of law enforcement phlebotomy and the creation of the patient/suspect; a semi-structured, in-depth interview study with police phlebotomists to understand the logics employed to justify, defend, and critique police use of phlebotomy; and a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of newspaper coverage of this policing practice.

Rights

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Available for download on Saturday, June 27, 2026

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