Taimoor Rana is seasoned criminal defense attorney specializing in DUI related cases. He shares his expert legal opinion here « “Strong Odor of Alcohol on Suspect’s Breath” Is it possible?
1
- I am sure about the fact that you would have never seen a DUI case where the officer does not report an odor of alcohol on the suspect’s breath. Never ever.It is expected by the officer that the person who has been stopped by him must have drunk and so there must be an odor of alcohol on his breath, and it is a psychological fact that we see, hear and smell the same thing that we expect to see, hear and smell.
But here I really want to tell you that it is a fact that most police DUI reports are formatted for the usual symptoms. There is given a box for "odor of alcohol", which the officer is required to check off. Usually there are three boxes, that has labels "strong", "moderate" and "weak"; but there is no box for "none", so this means that there is no other option for the officer other than to check off one of the three boxes. Mostly the "strong" box is checked by the officers. It is presumed that the stronger the odor of alcohol, the more intoxicated would have been the person who has been arrested.
But the only problem with this is that, Alcohol has no odor. It is in fact completely odorless. If for a while we assume that the officer actually does smell an odor on the breath, then I must tell you that what he smelt is not ethyl alcohol but that’s the odor of the flavoring in the beverage. And possibly the flavoring can be deceptive as to the strength or amount in which it is consumed. For instance Beer and wine are the least intoxicating drinks but they will cause the strongest odor. A much stronger drink as compared to beer such as scotch, will have a weaker odor. And vodka that is strongest one leaves virtually no odor at all.
Let us consider a simple experiment. Ask a friend to drink a can of "near beer", which is the drink that looks, smells and tastes like beer but it contains no alcohol. Then smell his breath. You will smell an "odor of alcohol" and you may smell a strong one. And, of course, it is possible that there can be several other causes of an "odor of alcohol" on a person’s breath. These could be mouth wash, throat spray, cough syrup. It has been noted that Illness, indigestion or simple bad breath has been the cause of more than one officer’s trigger-quick conclusion that the DUI suspect has an "odor of alcohol on his breath".
By all the above discussion what I want to say is that the odor of alcohol has a very little relevance in a drunk driving case. The person has consumed alcohol is sometimes indicated by it and sometimes it leads to wrong judgment of level of intoxication. It absolutely does not posses any evidentiary value on the much more important question that is in front of arresting officer, that how much the person has consumed or what he had to drink, or when. It depends on the circumstances that sometimes a person who had just a single drink can have a "strong odor of alcohol on his breath", and a person who is too much drunk can have a "weak" odor. And this will be readily admitted by an experienced and honest DUI officer….if he is ever asked.
Unluckily, there is a greater impact of the odor of alcohol on a person’s breath on a DUI case than any other single factor. This is due to the reason that most officers who have pulled a driver over for some driving irregularity at night are looking for further signs of drunk driving. When the officer would go closer to the driver’s window and smells alcohol, than his suspicions is confirmed. Since there are few person who can pass the "field sobriety tests", so particularly under the conditions in which they are given these tests, the probability of there arrest becomes the highest.
You might also like
 |
 |
 |
 |
One commentto ““Strong Odor of Alcohol on Suspect’s Breath” Is it possible?”
Hello there, I found via Search engines and your post appears really interesting for me personally.