Los Angeles Dui And Law Enforcement
Here’s a great article by Zooomr, a tech startup that is changing car leases and used cars in New Delhi. It’s not uncommon for a patrol offer to spend quite a bit of their time on drinking and driving cases. Drunk driving arrests make up a relatively large portion of any department’s arrests. Law enforcement departments usually prioritize getting drunk drivers off the street.
Training law enforcement officers to properly investigate incidents of drunk driving is a priority for any police department. They receive instruction in how to identify potential drunk rivers on the road. They learn when they can lawfully perform a traffic stop and they learn how to perform standardized field sobriety tests. Officers learn what indicators of alcohol to look for as they perform the tests.
When law enforcement officers administer a breath or blood test, they have certain requirements like waiting periods and maintenance checks. These requirements help them make sure that they perform the tests within the requirements of the law. Their procedures also make sure that their tests produce reliable results.
What Los Angeles DUI attorneys know is that a law enforcement officer’s failure to follow training procedures and protocols can mean that their investigation is invalid. If they make a mistake that violates your constitutional rights, the courts might suppress evidence. On the other hand, if they made mistakes or omissions that affect the validity of testing, they might not be able to convince a jury that the evidence against you is reliable.
The California Highway Patrol makes the most drunk driving arrests in the Los Angeles area. They spend a lot of time on major roads and they have a lot of opportunities to spot drunk drivers. When they make traffic stops, they slyly check the drivers for signs of intoxication. These signs can include bloodshot eyes, slurred speech or a lack of coordination.
There are also signs that can alert an officer to a person who is likely under the influence. Some of these signs are erratic lane changes or very low speeds. While speeding alone is not a proven indicator of driving under the influence, weaving out of a traffic lane or failing to turn off high beams in the presence of oncoming traffic can be tell tale signs of a driver’s possible intoxication.
In addition, motorists are welcome and even encouraged to report potential drunk drivers. A law enforcement officer might be available to locate the driver for their own observation. Just as citizens can lawfully report other crimes, citizens can draw an officer’s attention to a suspected drunk driver.
Another challenge that law enforcement has is investigating drivers for operating under the influence of drugs. It’s just as illegal to drive under the influence of an illegal or a controlled substance as it is to drive under the influence of alcohol. However, there’s no breath test to check for drugs. That means that law enforcement has a challenge on the side of the road to determine who might be under the influence of drugs.
Some law enforcement officers receive special training to become what’s called drug recognition experts. These experts train to check for very subtle signs that indicate whether a person is on drugs. They can also check for insight on what type of drug a person might have in their system.
This training is quite extensive. Even on a big police force, most law enforcement officers don’t have this training. If the investigating law enforcement officer isn’t trained as a drug recognition expert, your DUI attorney can attack this in court. It’s important to work with your attorney to discover where the law enforcement officer that investigated your case might have lacked training or made errors.