Taimoor Rana is seasoned criminal defense attorney specializing in DUI related cases. He shares his expert legal opinion here Accuracy, Honesty and Rights: Field Sobriety Tests in Florida »
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- If you’re ever pulled over under suspicion of DUI in Florida, the officer will normally perform a Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) and take a breathalyzer reading.
The SFST is used to estimate the level of intoxication and can provide the cause to arrest. A breathalyzer is used mostly to confirm intoxication.
Sometimes, the breathalyzer may return a negative reading, contradicting the results of a field sobriety test. There have been many cases involving a driver that has been arrested after a SFST and registered a completely legal BAC at the station.
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Unlawful Police Stops »
It is compulsory for an officer to have a valid, probable cause for ordering a driver to legally pull over for suspected drunk driving. Probable cause in this case can be defined as a reason sufficient enough to believe that illegal activity is taking place, not just a hunch or suspicion.
Before asking to stop, the officer should have observed actual signs that indicate intoxication. These may include swerving, speeding, driving too slowly and disobeying a traffic law which give the officer a reason to ask you to pull over for DUI.
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How Blood Tests Work in DUI and DWI Cases »
Once the police asks you to pull over for DUI or DWI, you will be required to give a breath test or you may end up taking a blood test to measure the blood alcohol content (BAC) in your body. The BAC level a crucial piece of evidence that the prosecution will use in proving that you were driving drunk.
Thus it is important to understand what this test measures, how it is administered and what can affect the results.
There are devices that have now been placed in police cars, known as breath testing equipment, that measure breath alcohol levels in suspected drunk drivers. But in case you have been accused of DUI or DWI and believe that the breath analysis is not accurate, you should request a blood test.
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“Strong Odor of Alcohol on Suspect’s Breath” Is it possible? »
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.
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10 DWI/DUI Myths and Their Facts – Part-1 »
Common myths surround the subject of DWI and DUI. Here I have corrected them by giving scientific information and evidence related to these myths.
Myth # 1:
A person’s BAC reading could be lowered down by sucking on pennies.
Fact:
If you suck a penny or other copper, it will not affect the results of an alcohol breath tester BAC. Don’t ever try to be a sucker as doing this you does not make any cents.
Myth # 2:
A reliable sign of how much alcohol has been consumed and what is the level of intoxication is “Alcohol on the breath”.
Fact:
Actually alcohol is odorless means it does not contain any smell. It is believed by the people that actually the alcohol on the breath is the odor of things commonly found in alcoholic beverages. So the breath of a person who has taken a non-alcoholic beer will smell the same as that of a person who has consumed an alcoholic beer.
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