When you are pulled over by police in Georgia for DUI, you are likely going to be asked to submit to field sobriety tests.
If you are under the impression that you must submit to these tests, that is understandable. Refusal of a breath, blood or urine test in Georgia comes with legal consequences. You are required to take one of these tests if asked.
Therefore, you might naturally assume the same is true for field sobriety tests. However, you are not required to submit to field sobriety tests in Georgia.
In fact, you should generally refuse these tests. They are often unreliable and not good indicators of an individual’s level of intoxication.
Standard field sobriety tests
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lists three basic types of field sobriety tests:
- Horizontal gaze nystagmus
- One leg stand
- Walk and turn
The horizontal gaze nystagmus test involves following an object with your eyes. This object is typically a beam of light or something similar. You cannot move your head but must only follow the object with your eyes.
The one leg stand is exactly what it sounds like. You must stand on one leg and lift the other one approximately six inches in the air.
The walk and turn involves walking a straight line, heel to toe, for nine steps, then turning around in a specific way and walking the straight line back.
Police officers are not required to use all these tests. They may use one or two or a combination of these and others. You could be asked to perform field sobriety tests based on memory, such as counting backwards from 20 or reciting the alphabet.
Most people are nervous during a DUI stop. Trying to pass tests such as these when nervous often results in failure.
You are essentially set up to fail these tests and all they do is provide additional evidence to be used against you.
Even if you are sober, you may have difficulty focusing or balancing when you are anxious. But a failed result could give police officers the probable cause they need to make a DUI arrest.
How a refusal could still result in an arrest
Although it is your legal right to refuse field sobriety tests, this may not stop police officers from arresting you for a refusal, especially in certain situations. If you are showing other signs of intoxication, your refusal to submit could still provide them with probable cause to make an arrest.
Remember that police officers must have reasonable suspicion to pull you over in the first place, except at a DUI checkpoint. When you are arrested, anything that violated your rights before the arrest could be used to have your charges dismissed.
This means that even a lack of reasonable suspicion for the initial stop may result in everything that happened after the stop to be thrown out, leaving the prosecution with no evidence against you.
Therefore, if you are arrested based on a failed field sobriety test or a refusal to take one, a thorough investigation of the situation is necessary. Every aspect of the stop must be scrutinized to determine if any of your rights were violated.
