One common occurrence is people are pulled over and the police officer suspects that they have been driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs or a combination of both, and the officer will actually be in the middle of his investigation when he first talks to the person. The investigation actually begins before the person is pulled over. The officer is trained to watch how the person is driving; the officer will look at the vehicle in motion to see if there is any swerving or lane straddling or any problems controlling speed or braking – that type of thing.
Once the officer makes contact with the person and smells the odor of alcohol, they move into the next stage of the investigation. An officer typically will ask the person to get out of the car, and they will start to conduct an investigation by asking questions about where the person was coming from, where they were going, and what they had to eat or drink. In doing this, they are building a case against somebody to prove later that the person was driving while impaired.
After they do a personal contact phase where they gather some information about the person and what they’ve had to drink, they then move into field sobriety tests where they actually do a screening to determine whether or not the person should be arrested. When someone is pulled over and they have been drinking, the officers will typically have them go through several different field sobriety tests. Typically they’ll have a test where they check the eyes, they’ll have them walk a line or an imaginary line, they’ll have them raise one foot off the ground, and they’ll also do some other tests, one of which may be tilting your head back, closing your eyes, and balancing.
This whole process is how the officer is building a DUI case against somebody. At the conclusion of the field sobriety tests, they typically will make a decision as to whether or not they want to actually arrest somebody. If somebody has been drinking, they are going to go ahead and make a decision that the person is impaired. That’s the officer’s opinion and that is typically enough to justify a lawful arrest. The person will then be placed into custody, handcuffs will be put on, and they will be put in the back of the police car and transported to a police station or a hospital for further testing. That’s normally what will happen if somebody has been drinking and is pulled over.
Personal Attention
