Review of Top Three Field Sobriety Tests

Substance abuse is a key component to the problems that we face today as a society. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("Alcohol-Impaired Driving", 2009) in 2009, 32% of all motor vehicle traffic fatalities in the United States were due to alcohol-impaired driving crashes. Surveys were also conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Compton, & Berning, 2009) so researchers were able to estimate not only the prevalence of drinking and driving, but for the first time they were also able to collect data on the number of drivers who were under the influence of drugs that impaired their abilities. In this data, it was found that 16% of weekend night time drivers tested positive for impairing drugs, in contrast to the 2% of drivers who were at the legal alcohol limit; making drugs 7 times more prevalent. These statistics show that “drugged” driving is a concern for not only law enforcement but also puts other drivers at risk of becoming a part of future statistics.

Driving under the influence is measured by a person’s blood alcohol level (BAC). BAC is determined by the concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream. Individual counties and states have their own legal level on blood alcohol percentages that they measure a person’s

This is a very interesting newspaper article out of the Tennessean. There is a huge case going on about drunk driving and field sobriety tests. This case consists of a 2009 DUI charge in Sevier County that was dismissed because car driver, David Bell, passed six field sobriety tests. The Tennessee Supreme Court has approved to take this case that could define if police officers can arrest people assumed of driving drunk after they have already pass field sobriety tests. Already three Tennessee courts have established that police needed the probable cause to arrest Bell and command a

“In the hands of an impaired driver, a vehicle becomes a murderous weapon.” ( ) Everyone can think of someone who has driven impaired, or even maybe you have done it yourself. The fact that one can think of someone who has driven impaired is a problem. Too many people are getting behind the wheel after drinking, smoking; or are not paying attention while they drive. Impaired driving continues to a problem although strides have been made to make a difference. There are many different types of impaired driving, each that have their own consequences. These types, and consequences will be explored in this essay.

Driving under the influence of alcohol is “one of Americas most often committed and deadliest crimes” (). A financial burden on society, motor vehicle crashes cost the United States an estimate of $37 billion annually (). Impaired driving continues to amplify in the United States, in addition to this, prevention laws differ from state to state. An increase in traffic accidents correlates to alcohol, moreover, “Alcohol-impairment is a factor in nearly one-third of all fatalities” (). The Governors Highway Safety Association (2016) examines the issues of impaired driving and the methods use to prevent and decrease DUIs.

Pursuant to C.R.S. § 42-4-1301.1(2)(a)(III), if a law enforcement officer requests a blood or breath test to determine the BAC level of a driver, the driver “must cooperate with the request such that the sample of blood or breath can be obtained within two hours of the person's driving.” Under this statute, a police officer with probable cause believing that a driver has committed an alcohol-related driving offense may require the driver to select and to complete either a blood test or a breath test.  After the driver selects a particular test, then he or she must submit to that test within two hours. Id.; People v. Null, 233 P.3d 670, 678 (Colo. 2010).

The goal of law enforcement is to deter people from driving drunk and to catch those who do. We would like to provide Buffalo with one of the most effective enforcement tools, sobriety checkpoints, which have been proven to reduce fatalities by twenty percent (Weir). Sobriety checkpoints are a technique in which police officers assess drivers for alcohol impairment at different points on the road. Vehicles will be stopped in a random sequence at predestined points. However, checkpoints are usually announced in advance and signs are posted at the checkpoints to warn drivers. In addition, if officers suspect that a driver stopped at a checkpoint has been drinking, they can conduct a breath test. Our department would like to provide all the necessary tools to effectively implement sobriety checkpoints in

Conducting a Standardized Sobriety Field test this help the law enforcement officer with determining whether or not the person being test is over the legal amount of alcohol that person is consumed or if the person have been taking illegal drugs. The way the person responds also indicates whether or not a person has been drinking or taking drugs. “As stated in the text by Gaensslen and Larsen (2013) “Certain types of behaviors and appearances are indicators that there has been some use of drugs.” (Section 4.3). When the authors talk about behavior and appearances it can range anywhere from aggression, problems with coordination, and irritability can be sign that illegal drugs or prescription drugs have been used. Ethanol is odorless and can

DUI’s have been on the rise in the past few years, therefore there have been many myths on how to not obtain a DUI or a DWI. New York became the pioneer state in which, they made to first drunk driving laws in 1910, followed shortly after California then the other forty-eight states followed. These DUI laws stated that a driver could not operate a vehicle while under the influence, although intoxication was not defined by legislature at this period of time. Then in the 1930’s committees wanted to make the roads safer. So The American Medical Association started a committee that studied the most common issues that lead to accidents. Also the National Safety Council created a study that determined intoxication, they reached a conclusion that a Blood Alcohol Content above 0.15 was intoxicated and anything under a person was sober, this became the first legal limit for BAC in 1938. Although as time progressed the laws became stricter, this was due to various groups that petitioned against drunk driving. The pressure from these organizations led to changes, such as raising the legal drinking age to twenty-one years of age, which was required for all states, yet drunk driving laws was not required by all police departments at this time. Then the legal limit was lowered to 0.10 from 0.15, then once lowered again to our legal limit we have to which is 0.08. The first myth to bust is the various amounts of ways someone can fool a Breathalyzer. The Breathalyzer is a small handheld

Used to deter drinking and driving, sobriety checkpoints are related more directly to educating the public and encouraging designated drivers, rather than actually apprehending impaired drivers. They offer authorities an educational tool. Education and awareness serve as a

New legislation regarding drunk driving is constantly being drawn up, debated, and passed in the United States. Many states are working to make the penalties for drunk driving much harsher, especially for repeat offenders (Xavier). Currently, in every state, the minimum punishment for convicted drunk drivers involves the automatic loss of their licenses for a period of time determined by the state (Xavier). An offender’s driver’s license should be automatically suspended or revoked after a drunk driving conviction and do away with the possibility of an implied consent hearing. An implied consent hearing is an administrative hearing conducted by an administrative law judge to determine if the suspension legal under all applicable statutes. By law, a person who drives a motor vehicle is deemed to have given his or her consent to chemical testing of his or her blood or breath for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content of his or her blood, if lawfully arrested for driving under the influence. Just by driving a motor vehicle, the motorist has consented to giving a sample.

    One major obstacle in marijuana’s path to legalization is that there are no road tests for the amount of marijuana a person has in their system (Migoya 3-4). While there is not yet a standard for a safe amount of marijuana in one’s system, all police officers are trained to detect drug use, an ability they can put to use on potentially intoxicated drivers (Puente 5). More recently, however, there have been police officers trained further than the standard, receiving the title ‘drug recognition expert.’ They go through more extensive training, and if they believe a driver is being impaired by substance use, “the person can be asked to undergo a specialized 12-step field sobriety test designed for people under the influence of drugs” (Puente 2). Since tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a chemical compound found in marijuana, can be detected in a person's system from prior use, even if they are no longer under the influence, a mouth swab test known as the Dräger 5000 tests only for active THC compounds, in addition to six other drugs, so that a police officer can know for sure if a driver is intoxicated

According to the most recent assessment done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, based on random roadside checks, found that 16.3% of all drivers nationwide at night were on various legal and illegal impairing drugs, and half of them were high on marijuana. (( Haerens, Margaret, and Lynn M. Zott. Medical Marijuana. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2013. Print. )) Page 158 California the first state to legalize it in 1996, (("23 Legal Medical Marijuana States and DC - Medical Marijuana - ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. )) has about 1,000 deaths and injuries each year blamed on drugged drivers, according to the California Highway Patrol. The law enforcers have blamed the rapid growth of medical marijuana use in the last decade. Due to the amount of incidences involving drugged driving, 13 States have adopted zero-tolerance laws. Although the drug is not as well understood as alcohol for example, federal are frantically rushing to conduct new research projects to determine if residual amounts of marijuana in the drivers system can impair their judgment driving, days or even weeks after their last use. As of current if an officer suspects a driver is driving stoned, they use a 12-point examination and use their own judgement to determine if a suspect has been using marijuana. Acording to some sources the drug

The DWI test is whenever you pull someone over on the side of the road where it has space at to make them do things like walk in a straight line follow the moving object with your eyes to see if you are drunk next step is to stand on one foot while the other foot is six inches off the ground with your hands to your side trying to keep your balance. Even though these tests are proven to be fairly accurate like if you was to fail all of the test's than it can't prove that you are intoxicated. The law is you have to be twenty one or older to be able to drink or purchase alcohol anywhere in the united states. There could be other reasons to why you fail the DUi test could be from your age or weight maybe even your physical condition or appearance

According to the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, there were more than 23,000 people arrested for driving under the influence in 2014. The cornerstone of many DUI cases is breath test results. Under the state’s implied consent law, the authorities may use such tests in order to determine the blood alcohol content level of motorists who they believe were drinking and driving. Overcoming the results of these tests may seem insurmountable, however, there are some situations in which breath tests may be deemed inadmissible.