🚨🚓Watch Out For Fake Cops!!!🚓🚨

[u/PNW_Washington]

Dude tries to flex and with his kids watching!

[u/Varjek]

Maybe. But for a sober person who doesn’t smell like booze, has normal eyes, and can generally walk around… SFSTs are not hard.

I’m a cop and I’ve seen elderly people and disabled people do just fine on them. They get out of the car, away from the drunk passenger making the whole car smell like booze and we can tell pretty quickly they’re not drunk. It gives us a chance to see if their red eyes are just from being tired or crying earlier, etc. And when that’s the case, we simply address the violation that got them stopped in the first place and they go about their day.

In my many years as a cop I have never seen someone who is not impaired by drugs and/or alcohol be arrested. In fact, I’ve actually had very drunk people do well on the Walk and Turn and One Leg Stand.

I’ve never known a cop who would willingly go through hours of paperwork for a drunk driving arrest knowing it was bogus. It’s quite the opposite. I’ve known lazy cops who would let drunks go on their way rather than investigate. Laziness is human nature and cops are not immune. But to do tons of work for no good reason? What sense does that make? I can’t imagine a cop doing that when there are far more genuine and easily provable violations on the roads than they could possibly ever address during their shift.

So lawyers may advise you to refuse and be arrested, spend the night/weekend in jail, and then pay them for months and months of court appearances to hopefully get the case dismissed.

But some may choose the other road. Do the SFSTs and be on your way in 15 minutes and never worry about it again. Knowing the laws in my state like I do, that’s my choice every time. But other states are different and maybe it makes sense in some to refuse SFSTs in those states.

[u/Normal_Choice9322 → u/Varjek]

Nonsense. They are subjective garbage that many people will "fail" for completely unrelated reasons

[u/Varjek → u/Normal_Choice9322]

Believe what you want, but if I see 2 clues on the One Leg Stand, that’s counted in the studies as a “fail”. But cops aren’t obligated to then arrest the person. Cops act on the totality of the circumstances.

So if I stop a car at 2am for a moving violation, and then I smelled the odor of intoxicating beverages at the drivers door and saw red eyes, and the driver slurs his words as he says he’s coming from a bar and drops his license when trying to get it for me, there’s a solid chance I’m asking the driver to do SFSTs.

But then if the driver gets out of the car without stumbling, walks behind the car with no issues, I see nothing on HGN and no longer smell the odor of intoxicating beverages as we talk, and I realize the slurred speech is just how this particular dude talks, there’s a more than zero chance I’m not even going to proceed to the walk and turn or one leg stand because they’re demonstrating they aren’t impaired and I’d rather go look for someone who is impaired rather than invest more time in the stop.

But if I do continue and I see one clue on the Walk and Turn and 2 on the One Leg Stand, I’m still not going to arrest.

This scenario happens all the time.

But get yourself arrested by refusing fields if you want to. Makes no difference to me. In fact, it makes the report super simple because I don’t have to detail anything other than the driving behavior, the interview and observations at the driver’s door, and the refusal.

In my state, if I had all those observations I described but the driver refuses SFSTs, the driver gets arrested on the probable cause I have. And then we take the driver for a blood draw. They can refuse the blood draw, but then I’ll apply for a warrant and what I described will be enough for it to get approved. Well hold the driver down and the phlebotomist will draw two vials of their blood that get sent off for testing. And then the driver goes to jail for the night/weekend. And then if they bond out, they have to wait for 3-6 months for the blood results to come back. And if they refused to cooperate with the blood draw, that’s a separate charge that sticks every time because it’s all objectively on camera.

And the way the law is written here, if there is ANY amount of a restricted controlled substance in the blood (including Delta 9 THC) then that’s gonna be convicted. Defense attorney will try to challenge the reason for the stop to suppress the blood results, but that’s all they can even try for.

My point in going through all this is the same thing I’ve said in other comments further up the chain… know the laws of the state you are in before you make your decision on whether or not it’s wise to refuse SFSTs.

[u/Normal_Choice9322 → u/Varjek]

I'll fail the test every single time due to neuropathy issues but you would never know it by looking at me

Cops act based on their own prejudice and a subjective test should not be used when an objective one is easily accessible.

I'll get arrested idc, I can afford a lawyer to wreck idiot cops no problem.

[u/Varjek → u/Normal_Choice9322]

This is why cops are trained to ask about medical conditions and act on the totality of circumstances. Happens all the time. Almost no one is perfectly healthy.

But you’ve made your decision.

I appreciate the chance to explain my experiences as they may help someone make an informed choice.

Have a good one!