Las Vegas DUI Detection

This page discusses the subject of DUI detection. This is, “how does a police officer determine that you are indeed under the influence of a behavior altering substance.” With the passage of countless laws, propagated by such mega-lobbyist groups as MADD and standardization across a majority of states, DUI detection is where the nightmare starts for you. Understand that a lot of these laws are based completely on junk science. Detection of someone driving while impaired has nearly gone completely out the window and has been replaced with a focus on how can an officer of the law make an arrest stick and go through trial. DUI Detection is where you, as a civilian can truly defend yourself. 99% of building a DUI case against you occurs with you, as a citizen “cooperating” with the police. Understand that your rights as a citizen end with your “cooperation”. Illegal searches and seizure, violation of rights to privacy, violations of rights to not incriminate yourself and violations of your Miranda Warnings all begin with YOUR “cooperation.” Police rely on your ignorance of your own rights and you giving consent to violate your rights to build a DUI case against you. Below is how they “detect” if they can build a DUI case against you. [please note that this website does not advocate disobeying the law, however it does promote you protecting your rights] Your constitutional rights are not exercised against other citizens, they are exercised against the government. You do not have a constitutional right to privacy against a newspaper reporter, but you do have it against police coming into your home, for example.

Junk science: most people [including police, lawyers and even judges] do not have enough of a scientific background to understand one simple definition of what science is - from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge" is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the natural world. The key here is that whatever observation is made, it has to be both testable and reproducible. The truth of the matter is that the laws across the land that say that a B.A.C. of 0.08 is evidence that a person driving a car is impaired is junk science at best. The 0.08 B.A.C. was an arbitrary number. The truth of the matter is that 0.08 B.A.C. was simply plucked from the air and written into law. Are some people at a B.A.C. of 0.08 impaired? Sure they are, but it does not mean that you specifically were impaired. To twist arms, however, states were forced to universally say that 0.08 B.A.C. is the standard for impaired driving. Some states will revert back to 0.12 B.A.C. as their standard in a few years. Most everyone simply does not challenge the B.A.C. levels in a case, because they do not like going to court nor trying to challenge the law. In reality to adequately and scientifically prove that you were in fact impaired, the state would have to test you personally, through scientific method, to determine at what B.A.C. you become impaired. As crazy as it sounds, there are people in this world that do not become impaired, even with a B.A.C. of 0.32.

Bottom line, get a DUI attorney or DUI lawyer and say absolutely nothing to the police.

Use this page at your leisure.

DUI Detection

We present to you the detection criteria used by officers when they are being trained to detect DUI. This is paraphrased directly from their NHTSA handbook. Read it carefully to see whether or not you exhibited any of these behaviors. I make careful note of the percentages, because I believe police today are simply playing a numbers game. That is to say, that even after stopping you and writing you a ticket and taking you to court, they may not know whether or not if you were in fact too impaired to drive a motor vehicle. That deserves repeating. DUI detection is a process to determine if, under the law you were too impaired to drive a motor vehicle. It has very little to do with the police officers observations. He will gather his information, which he does during the detection phase, and present it to the court. If it passes muster, you move on to conviction and sentencing.

More than a million people have died in traffic crashes in the United States since 1966, the year of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which led to the creation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA.

NHTSA sponsored research leading to the development of a new DUI / DWI detection guide which describes a set of behaviors that can be used by officers to detect motorists who are likely to be driving while impaired.

The researchers interviewed officers from across the United States and developed a list of more than 100 driving cues that have been found to predict blood alcohol concentrations, or B.A.C.s, of 0.08 percent or greater. The list was reduced to 24 cues during three field studies involving hundreds of officers and more than 12,000 enforcement stops. The driving behaviors identified by the officers are presented in the following four categories:

Problems in maintaining proper lane position,
Speed and braking problems,
Vigilance problems, and
Judgment problems.

The cues presented in these categories predict that a driver is DUI / DWI at least 35 percent of the time. For example, if you observe a driver to be weaving or weaving across lane lines, the probability of DUI / DWI is more than .50, or 50 percent. However, if you observe either of the weaving cues and any other cue listed in this booklet, the probability of DWI jumps to at least .65, or 65 percent.

1) Problems Maintaining Proper Lane Position

percentage =.50.75

Weaving, Weaving across lane lines, Straddling a lane line, Swerving, Turning with a wide radius, Drifting, Almost striking a vehicle or other object

2) Speed and Braking Problems

percentage =.45.70

Stopping problems (too far, too short, or too jerky), Accelerating or decelerating for no apparent reason, Varying speed, Slow speed (10+ mph under limit)

3) Vigilance Problems

percentage =.55.65

Driving in opposing lanes or wrong way on one-way, Slow response to traffic signals, Slow or failure to respond to officer's signals, Stopping in lane for no apparent reason, Driving without headlights at night, Failure to signal or signal inconsistent with action

4) Judgment Problems

percentage =.35.90

Following too closely, Improper r unsafe lane change, Illegal or improper turn (too fast, jerky, sharp, etc.), Driving on other than the designated roadway, Stopping inappropriately in response to officer, Inappropriate or unusual behavior (throwing, arguing, etc.), Appearing to be impaired.

Cues After Motorist Has Been Stopped

percentage > .85

Difficulty with motor vehicle controls
Difficulty exiting the vehicle
Fumbling with driver's license or registration
Repeating questions or comments
Swaying, unsteady, or balance problems
Leaning on the vehicle or other object
Slurred speech
Slow to respond to officer/officer must repeat
Provides incorrect information, changes answers
Odor of alcoholic beverage from the driver

percentage > .50 when combined with any other cue:

Driving without headlights at night
Failure to signal or signal inconsistent with action

The probability of detecting DUI / DWI by random traffic enforcement stops at night has been found to be about three percent (.03).

Visual DUI Detection :

A police officer detecting a potential DUI / DWI may occur in the course of either:

a motor vehicle accident;
being stopped at a sobriety checkpoint; or
observing your driving pattern.

The detection of a DUI / DWI doesn’t stop there, it actually begins there. This is where he or she determines whether or not you were driving under the influence of a substance.

Detection will begin not only with observing your driving pattern, but when the officer

questions you at the vehicle,
asks you to submit to field sobriety tests
asks for you to take a field breathalyzer test.

These are all to determine and detect if you are in violation of the DUI laws and statutes. They are, in essence, building a case against you through these probes and questions and tests. What they may not tell you, at the beginning of this questioning, from the time they pull you over and start asking questions, is that you have Miranda Rights.

Your Nevada DUI attorney may advise you that it is crucial during detection that you be aware of this phase. The officer is indeed building a case against you. If you feel you are in danger of being in violation of the DUI laws, it is advisable that you immediately request to speak to your attorney. He or she would be the most qualified to advise you, as to what to say to the officer.

Miranda Warning Right to Remain Silent:

If you are arrested, make sure that you are advised of all of your rights as set forth in the Supreme Court case of Miranda vs Az., namely, that you were advised of:

the right to remain silent, the right to counsel, and the warning that anything said by the suspect may be used against you.

If the officer thereafter asks any questions without first giving the admonition, any incriminating answers may be suppressed, that is to say the prosecution will be unable to introduce them into evidence.

It is the failure of most Americans to understand their constitutional 5th amendment rights. The 5th amendment states: “no person... shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.” The police rely on Americans to unwittingly waive their rights constantly, to throw them in jail. In the process of detecting whether or not you have committed any crime, the police may make observations of his own, but the bulk of his work is done by tricking, lying or intimidating you into waiving your 5th amendment right to remain silent. Take the words of Justice Robert Jackson who is quoted as saying in Watts v. Indiana, 338 U.S. 49. 59 (1949) "Any lawyer worthy his salt will tell the suspect, in no uncertain terms, to make no statement to the police under any circumstances."

The average citizen does not realize that the police spend their day interrogating suspects. As such, they have a lot of practice doing it. They are trained to size you up and figure out which buttons to push to get you to waive your 5th amendment rights. There is no law against a police officer completely lying to you about facts that he has observed. It is a good practice to assume that a police officer knows nothing about you, your driving or anything that has happened before he stepped up to your window. With that in mind then, when he opens his mouth to say that he observed several facts of your driving, assume that he is completely lying to you. Once you are of the mindset that anything he is saying is not factual, then you can understand that you volunteering any information is simply a voluntary confession. Even innocent questions that have nothing to do with him stopping you can be considered waiving your 5th amendment right to silence.

Understand that it is a police officers job to find, arrest and help prosecute you. They are not there to discuss the fairness of laws. They are not priests, that hear and absolve confessions. Understand that a police officer does not have the authority to make any deals with you. In fact a police does not charge you with anything, it is the district attorney’s office that charges you. The police make suggestions to the district attorney’s office. The district attorney’s office would be the only ones with the power and authority to make deals with you or reduce charges. Remember, a policeman is at liberty to completely lie to you. They are completely at liberty to tell you that if you cooperate they can charge you with something lesser. This is simply and categorically false. A police can only find, arrest and assist in prosecuting you.

In their effort to prosecute you, the police use underhanded tactics to get you to waive your 5th amendment rights. These tactics can include shaming you into a confession. Or worse, should you invoke your 5th amendment rights, they try and shame you into waiving them by shaming you for invoking your 5th amendment right. In Ullmann v. United States, 350 U.S. 422, 426 (1956) the supreme court said "Too many, even those who should be better advised, view this privilege as a shelter for wrongdoers. They too readily assume that those who invoke it are either guilty of crime or commit perjury in claiming the privilege." Even the supreme court understands that people do not see the purpose of the 5th amendment. The police play on this misunderstanding and seek to get you to waive it, even after you’ve invoked it.

Any good lawyer will tell you, never, ever talk to the police. They are not in a position of power to do anything good for you. They are only there to prosecute you. Anything you give the police will be used in the worst possible way, even telling them how you go to Sunday school and help the mentally challenged. Understand that the police are not mind readers and they are not all knowing nor omnipresent, meaning everywhere at all times. So if a policeman tells you he knows you were drinking, assume he is completely lying and invoke your 5th amendment rights. There is no penalty for refusing a Field Sobriety Tests or the breathalyzer test in the field, in the state of Nevada. You do not somehow waive your 5th amendment rights to self incrimination, simply because a policeman tells you to step out of the car and take the test. Remember, without that test, there will be very little evidence they can bring against you to prosecute you.

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