Taimoor Rana is seasoned criminal defense attorney specializing in DUI related cases. He shares his expert legal opinion here « DWI Probable Cause
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- However, the officer must have probable cause that the driver was driving while intoxicated before he can arrest a driver for drunk driving. The standard of a probable cause is higher than reasonable suspicion. Thus, if the driver is swerving a little bit then it doesn’t give an officer the right to arrest that driver for drunk driving.
Indeed, what the officer should do is that he must pull over the driver and assess the situation and after getting the driver perform field sobriety tests or observing him or her for a few minutes, and after knowing with reasonable certainty that the driver is intoxicated then only he may arrest him or her for drunk driving.
And there is also an element “presence” in drunk driving laws and that is a driver may argue that he was pulled over on the side of the road, and he wasn’t driving when the officer saw him. So, how could the officer say that he was driving drunk although he never saw him driving.
The element of “presence” in the drunk driving context is neglected by the majority of the states the reason is that a drunk driver is a threat to other drivers and because it is not possible that a police officer simply issue a citation to a drunk driver and let them go where ever they want. Thus, it is said by most of the states that it is not needed for the officer to observe the driver driving intoxicated, so long as indicated by all the surrounding circumstances that the vehicle could not otherwise be located where it was unless it is driven there by that person.
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One commentto “DWI Probable Cause”
Its intresting and awesome.
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