While prosecutors can see previous DUI convictions, they have no way of seing DUI arrests or pending DUI cases. Or at least they’re not supposed to be able to. A new Kansas DUI bill is looking to change that.

The bill would require the state to compile a centralized database of driving records, which would include information about DUI arrests and pending cases as well as convictions, Ford County Terry Malone said Friday.

Malone said that information would be a useful tool for prosecutors handling DUI cases. “This is really a big step in the right direction,” he said.

The database is a key part of Senate Bill 378, aimed at overhauling Kansas’ drunk-driving laws. The bill would also create a special commission to recommend changes to the current laws, and it would make drunk driving a felony after a third conviction instead of the current four.

The bill also requires drivers with one, two or three drunk-driving convictions to enroll in a substance abuse treatment program.

Lawmakers are considering several bills designed to to crack down on drunk drivers, four months after a Wichita man killed a woman and her daughter while driving drunk. The case sparked widespread outrage and calls for reform.

“There are horrendous, horrendous crimes being committed with DUIs,” Sen. Jean Schodorf, a Wichita Republican who helped work on the bill, told the Globe on Friday. “This bill would, through a commission, attempt to rewrite the DUI laws and to increase treatment for No. 2 and 3. And hopefully, treatment will reduce the number of DUIs.”

Under SB 278, law enforcement agencies and courts would file electronic reports on DUI arrests and convictions with the state, which would compile the information in a centralized database. The reporting requirement would kick in whenever law enforcement officers make a drunk-driving arrest.

Prosecutors would have to request that information from the state before filing a DUI case.

If you have not been scared into not driving drunk and have been arrested for DUI contact a DUI lawyer right away.