What to Expect At a Baltimore DUI Stop
Being pulled over and suspected of DUI can be intimidating especially if you are unsure of what to expect and what legal rights you possess. With this in mind, the following is information on what to expect at each step of the DUI stop process, and what law enforcement will likely be looking for. To learn more or begin building your defense, call and schedule a consultation with a Baltimore DUI lawyer today.
The Initial Stop
The first thing they someone should expect is that they’re going to get pulled over or otherwise contacted by the police. The officer needs reasonable grounds to initiate a traffic stop or some kind of reasonable articulable suspicion that a traffic offense has taken place. For example, the officer needs to see you speeding or committing some other type of traffic infraction before pulling you over.
Pulling Over at Night
If you’re pulled over at night, it’s even more important to pull over as far to the right as is possible so the officer is not standing directly in traffic. One of police officers’ greatest fears is getting hit by traffic when conducting stops on the highway. The further to the right and the further off the roadway you pull over, usually the better it looks. When you pull over, you don’t want to drive into the dirt directly off of the roadway. You want to stay on the shoulder because the officer will cite you driving onto the grass as another potential indicator of impairment.
License and Registration
Once pulled over you should expect that the officer will tell you why they pulled you over, will identify himself or herself, and will start asking you questions. They’ll ask you everything from where you’re coming from to how much you had to drink. What the officer will be looking for isn’t necessarily how you answer the questions, but your demeanor when you answer the questions, such as if you seem confused or suspicious in any way.
The officer will then ask you to produce your documents—your driver’s license, your registration, your proof of insurance. They’re looking for fumbling, poor coordination, inability to retrieve documents, and things like that. Then they’ll go back to their car and run your documents.
Field Sobriety Tests
At this point if law enforcement believes you may be under the influence they are going to ask you to step out of vehicle to conduct a standard field sobriety test. There are three standardized field sobriety tests in Maryland.
- The first is the horizontal gaze nystagmus test. In that test, an officer checks your eyes to see how they move as they track a stimulus—either the officer’s finger, pen, or flashlight.
- The second test is the walk and turn test. This is where the officer has you stand in an instructional position while he explains the test to you and then you take a series of nine heel-to-toe steps on an imaginary line, a series of small steps pivoting around the planted foot to turn around, and then a series of nine heel-to-toe steps back.
- The final test is the one-leg stand. You are required to keep one foot raised approximately six inches off the ground, keep your arms at your sides, look at your foot, and count to 30 by the thousand.
In each of those tests, the officer is looking for very subtle, minute clues of impairment. They’re not easily explainable tests. For example, the walk and turn isn’t a test of can you walk a straight line, turn around, and walk back like you’re not drunk. What they’re looking for in that test is did you stand in the correct instructional position, did you click your heel to toe with every step that you took, did you turn by taking a series of small steps around a planted foot rather than doing a pivot? In a lot of ways, the testing is designed for you to fail.
Preliminary Breath Test and Arrest
After you complete the field sobriety test, the officer will then ask you to blow into a portable breath test (PBT),. Finally, the officer will arrest you for suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI) and take you back to the police station. There you’ll be advised by a different officer of your right to take or refuse to take a chemical breathe test and then you’ll either choose to do that test or refuse that test. Then the officer will have the discretion to release you immediately on your own recognizance or book you and require you to see a commissioner who may at that point release you on your own recognizance or require you to post a bond.
Biggest Mistakes to Avoid
The biggest mistake to avoid in an interaction with the police—whether it’s a traffic stop or any other type of investigation is self-incriminating statements and confessions. The worst evidence that a state attorney could have usually comes from the admission of the individual. For example, an officer will pull somebody over and ask, “how much have you had to drink?” Sometimes people will just volunteer that they’ve had eight, nine, or ten drinks and they really shouldn’t be driving. At that point, it makes their criminal DUI case significantly more difficult to win because that statement can come in without the individual testifying to it. The officer can say that the defendant admitted to having X number of drinks.
The other bit for self-incrimination that attorneys frequently see particular to DUI stops is conducting field sobriety tests. Field sobriety tests in Maryland are completely voluntary. There’s no penalty for refusing to do field sobriety tests. The test themselves are also extremely unfair, meaning that it’s possible to have had nothing to drink, be completely unimpaired, and still fail field sobriety tests. Since there’s no penalty for refusing them and they’re designed to be failed, the smart choice, when confronted with the question of should you do field sobriety tests, is not to do them.