DUI DEFENSE: FIELD SOBRIETY CHECKPOINTS AND DUI ROADBLOCK STOPS IN THE UNITED STATES
If you have been arrested for Either “DWI” Driving While Intoxicated or “DUI” Driving Under the Influence, after being stopped at a sobriety checkpoint, it is important that you consult an experienced DUI attorney immediately. Calling an experienced DUI lawyer should be your priority and the first phone call you make. Your future now depends on your DUI Attorneys ability to defend the charges against you.
One of the first things your attorney will do is investigate the area and terrain that the police directed you to perform the Field Sobriety Tests. First understand that the Field Sobriety Tests are specifically designed for you to fail. Most American adults cannot perform the DUI tests even completely sober. If the surface was uneven, slippery, wet, lose dirt that would impair a woman’s shoe heal, or a rocky surface, there are many reasons why you may fail a DUI sobriety test for a legitimate reason. Our DUI Attorneys and DUI Lawyers can properly advise you on the best and leading criminal defense strategies to any case involving a DUI investigation which arises from a Sobriety Checkpoint.
Working with an experienced DUI attorney or DWI Attorney who is specifically experienced with DUI roadblocks and DUI checkpoints is a critical component to your defense. An experienced DUI attorney may be able to build a successful defense for you in proving that the checkpoint you were stopped at may have been set up in violation of certain laws. For example, the DUI or DWI Checkpoint may have violated the balance between an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights and the communities need for a checkpoint. With the correct evidence in your favor, your DWI attorney may be able to prove that you were improperly stopped, or unfairly subjected to unnecessary testing.
DUI Sobriety checkpoints, or DUI roadblocks, are established as a means to cut down on the number of drunk drivers. Whether you are stopped in California, New York, Texas, Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts, or any other state, the implementation of these checkpoints has been controversial due to their possible infringement upon fourth amendment rights as outlined in the U.S. Constitution. However, in 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that sobriety checkpoints were constitutional when the intrusion on the individual’s rights is rightly weighed with the effectiveness of the roadblock.
Police officers may set up a roadblock and stop drivers as a means of a sobriety checkpoint, as long as certain factors are met, and ultimately proved by the prosecution in a DUI or DWI case:
• The Public must be given prior notice of the checkpoint.
• In many states, there must be a turnout option prior to the DUI checkpoint so that people who do not want to proceed through the Motor Vehicle stop have the option to turn around. These people cannot be pulled over based solely on their decision to not to proceed through the checkpoint.
• There must be a random, impartial formula for stopping cars (such as every other car or every 5th car)
• Safety conditions must be monitored at the checkpoint
• The length and nature of the drivers detention must not be obtrusive
• The DUI Checkpoints location, duration and time of day must be reasonable.
Police officers are trained to look for certain signs of driving under the influence of alcohol or driving under the influence of drugs at the DUI checkpoint. Any one of these can give the police officer cause to subject you to field sobriety tests: These are some of the things that the officer is looking for:
• Do you have Slurred speech
• Your ability to recall where you came from
• Your ability to remember where you are going
• Do you Bloodshot eyes
• Do you have poor hand-eye coordination
• Do you have the inability to follow directions
• Do you possess open containers of alcohol in the vehicle
• Is there an odor of alcohol on the driver’s breath
• Are there any visible signs of other intoxication
• Are there any visible signs of drug use