ROCKFORD, IL – It’s against the law to drive drunk, but there’s no prescribed penalty for doing so if you’re a city of Rockford employee behind the wheel of a city vehicle, according to the Rockford Register Star. That’s because the city has no specific policy guiding workers who drive city vehicles. That will soon change, said City Legal Director Patrick Hayes.

The change comes after City Administrator Jim Ryan’s drunken driving arrest in a city vehicle last week. Hayes said it’s time the city establish rules for those who use city cars. Hayes, along with the city’s Personnel Department, will develop the rules and bring them before the City Council for approval in the next few months.

The city has dozens of cars and trucks that employees drive during the day. Another 54 staffers — mostly police detectives — get to take their cars home at night. But there are only a few guidelines for using those vehicles sprinkled throughout the city’s personnel handbook. Possession of alcohol in a city vehicle is prohibited, but the handbook makes no mention of driving intoxicated.