Reader’s Question:

I wonder if police officers in Wheaton-Glenmont, Maryland are required to conduct field sobriety tests in a DUI arrest. And would a failure on these tests be a probable cause for an officer to arrest a driver whom he suspects to be drunk driving?

Bryant

Wheaton-Glenmont, MD

In general, police officers in Wheaton-Glenmont, Maryland are required to administer field sobriety tests (FST’s) before issuing summons for DUI. These psychological and physical tests are intended to provide police officers with information necessary to determine if the motorist is under the influence of alcohol or drugs. FST’s are also necessary because an officer should have probable cause to make an arrest and unless he has portable breath test equipment in his vehicle, FST’s are ordinarily the only basis for establishing probable cause for a DUI arrest. Moreover, FST’s also provide evidence that the police could rely upon in attempting to prove a DUI or refusal case where blood alcohol level could not be established through blood or breath tests.

There are a lot of issues which could be raised with regard to administration of FST’s. Certainly, many times officers fail to conduct the tests properly thereby destroying the value of the tests. In other cases, test results are exaggerated or misinterpreted and this could be brought out during the course of a DUI case. If the weight of FST’s could be eliminated or significantly reduced, then the prosecutor could be unable to satisfy his burden of establishing probable cause for the drunk driving arrest.

Tags: blood alcohol test, breath test, DUI, DUI arrest, field sobriety tests