In almost all Rochester DWI cases, the arresting officer will ask a driver suspected of drinking and driving to perform various field sobriety tests prior to placing the driver under arrest.
The purpose of these tests is to determine whether the driver has any physical or mental limitations that would support a finding of intoxication or impairment.
These tests may include activities such as walking heel to toe, touching your nose with your finger and reciting the alphabet.
The results of these tests will almost always be used as evidence against the driver at trial.
While there have been some efforts by law enforcement to make these tests more scientific by codifying which tests appear most accurate and setting forth specific criteria regarding what is considered a “pass” or a “fail” on a given test, these criteria are, unfortunately, rarely actually used by arresting officers.
Instead, the officers continue to use a wide variety of tests and will frequently indicate that a driver “failed” a test with no specific basis for their opinion that the driver failed.
Police officers have even been known to ask individuals suspected of drinking and driving to perform acts that a sober person may have difficulty with – such as reciting the alphabet backwards – and then use that person’s “failure” as a basis for a DWI arrest.
Because of the lack of hard rules regarding what tests to conduct and how they should be conducted, an experienced DWI attorney will carefully examine the circumstances surrounding the field sobriety tests to determine if they actually support a defendant’s intoxication.
If you are facing drunk driving charges, you need a lawyer who will examine all of the evidence against you when defending your case.
Call us at (585) 484-7432 for legal help.