How To Avoid Getting Stopped for DUI / DWI

Law Enforcement officers must have a valid legal reason to pull you over and stop you in your vehicle before they can get to the issue of whether you are driving under the influence. It is illegal for law enforcement to see you leaving a bar and to pull you over for that reason alone; they must have a legal basis for the stop.

With that said, do not give them a reason to pull you over. Make sure that the brake lights and taillights in your vehicle are properly functioning. The windshield of the vehicle should not have any cracks. License plates must be mounted and properly lighted. Vehicle registration must be current and the stickers must be properly affixed to the license plates. In short, I tell my clients that to be safe, make sure that their vehicle could pass a state vehicle safety inspection.

The other way that law enforcement can have a basis to pull you over is by the way that you are driving. Most of the drunk driving stops are made because the driver was speeding, failed to obey a traffic device, crossed the lines on the road, or was swerving. Any traffic violation, even not using a turning signal or not wearing a seatbelt, is sufficient to allow law enforcement to stop you. Do not give the police an invitation to pull you over. I also advise my clients to drive as if they graduated from driving school and to carefully follow the traffic laws.

Once a law enforcement officer pulls you over, you are subject to being observed and evaluated for signs of intoxication and you are subjected to being asked questions and being asked to perform tests which are designed to incriminate you and lead to your arrest.

Law enforcement officers are well trained to look for signs of, and to illicit information about, intoxication. It does not take much to convince an officer that you are intoxicated. For instance, any odor of alcohol on your breath will lead them to conclude and to write in their report that they “detected the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” on you. They will gage your speech and conclude that your speech was slurred. They will look at your eyes and determine that they are red and glassy. They will evaluate you as you retrieve your Driver’s License and Registration to see if you are fumbling or if you are clumsy. They are noting your complexion to see if you are flushed. They even note what you are wearing because if you look disheveled, wrinkled, or untucked, then you must be drunk.

Another way that law enforcement officers try to catch drunk drivers is through Specialized DWI Enforcement Strategies. They include roving DWI patrols and saturation patrols in a targeted geographical patrol area, such as areas with high incidences of DWI arrests or DWI accidents. Often, saturation patrols are coordinated with other agencies and jurisdictions in order to increase effectiveness and share resources, such as a Breath Alcohol Test (BAT) Mobile.

BAT Mobiles are motor homes equipped with breath testing instruments and act as mobile police stations. They can be brought to the scene in rural areas or stationed at sobriety checkpoints.

Sobriety checkpoints are required to be highly visible and therefore, possible for the motorist to avoid. They involve stopping all drivers in a designated area of highway and briefly investigating for signs of intoxication.

Legally, these checkpoints have been challenged on grounds that they violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition against illegal searches and seizures. Nonetheless, they were constitutionally upheld in the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case of Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz, wherein the Court held that the Fourth Amendment does not forbid the initial stop and brief detention of all motorists passing through a highway checkpoint established to detect and deter drunk driving, without individualized suspicion, conducted in conformity with guidelines on operation, site selection, and publicity.

The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) published operational guidelines in order to ensure that sobriety checkpoints are not only legal, but are also effective and safe. These guidelines state that the location of the checkpoint should be pre-selected by management based on statistics, and further state that there should be special warning devices, visible police authority, chemical testing logistics, contingency planning, effective detection and investigation techniques, operational briefings, comprehensive public information and public education efforts, and post-stop critiques based on data collection and evaluation.

You do not have to go through a sobriety checkpoint and because there must be advanced warning of the checkpoint, you can avoid going through one.

Call me at 410-446-6644 or complete the Free Attorney Consultation box on this page to discuss your case at no charge and to fully protect your interests.