Views on field sobriety testing for suspected drunk driving range widely. Some people -- often police officers and prosecutors, obviously -- find the practice to be completely unobjectionable and a useful tool for supporting DUI arrests and convictions. Many people who are stopped and run through the battery of tests, however, find them to be intimidating and unfair.
One point is clear concerning field sobriety tests, and those who object to the testing are often quick to note it: The tests are opinion-based, with the results resting less on objective factors than on an observing police officer's opinion. In other words, the evaluation is subjective and marked heavily by assumptions.
Additionally, many people simply think that the tests are unfair and not a necessarily good indicator for who is drunk behind the wheel. A sobriety test instructor recently provided training on how to administer the tests to a San Francisco television reporter, who then randomly tested several drivers. The results -- and the motorists' comments -- underscored their concerns with the process.
Even persons in highly dissimilar circumstances -- for example, at home and under no external pressures -- often have trouble performing the tests at a level that would satisfy many examiners. Completely sober people can have problems walking a completely straight line or raising one leg and remaining immobile.
That was borne out by the random participants. One stated that he could easily envision many sober people failing the tests. The majority of those tested found the exactions to be physically harder than they expected.
In a convincing corroboration of these views, the television station obtained a video of a sobriety stop in which the testing officer is heard to remark that he could not satisfactorily perform the same test he is observed administering to a motorist.
Critics also allege an additional flaw in the process, namely, that field sobriety testing doesn't actually visit the question of whether a driver has been drinking.
Source: KTVU, "Field sobriety tests may not always be accurate" Nov. 1, 2011
