Haven't in over a year. From my experience though, it was very easy to do. Makes me worried how far others must push their limits to actually get a DUI or swerve around like idiots.

Cops can tell sometimes. You have to remember that arresting people comes with a lot of paperwork compared to just stopping and giving a warning. If they dont think you are a danger they probably wont bother unless they have checkpoints out.

You are probably right

We can tell, but DUI is a specialized skill.

And it's a really particular thing to make a good arrest and get a conviction. Field sobriety tests have to be done in an exact way, very methodical, and in some states it's not even part of basic training.

If I stop a car for a weird violation, like swerving, stopping when there's no stop sign, wrong side of road, go through a stop sign especially slowly without even touching brakes, or no head lights, that's a huge red flag for DUI

Regardless of the stop reason I watch for symptoms. Do they have trouble finding their ID? Motor skills? Slurred speech, smell of alcoholic drinks, actual drinks in the car, sleepy, etc?

And people who are always drunk sometimes can drive perfectly normal, no violation, and show no symptoms, yet they'll blow like a 0.4

My grandpa is like that last paragraph.

I think he actually drives better when drunk.

Yeah we had a guy in the Army get a DUI at .28

Said he was fine but the cop could obviously smell it

If it's 0.08 or above that's all I need for a case. If it's less, I can still prosecute but I need some moving violations and fail field sobriety

Isn’t it .08 that’s the legal limit?

I think it’s that in NC anyways.

Well I was told in school that it's just driving u der the influence

So while they need you to blow .08 to prove it, they can also get it by having you say you had a couple drinks or something similar

This was from a lawyer telling us to watch the hell out what questions we answer and how

Lots of fun cop stuff just from talking to people

Oh now that’s interesting.

I was under the impression it was legal to drive with up to .08 BAC as long as you aren’t running people over or something wild.

If you admit to a crime you admit to a crime

If you say you had a few drinks and they get you for some infraction they dont really need the BAC

At least in my state

Oh ok. Might be different in Arizona then.

Same for weed

Just dont answer possibly incriminating questions. Dont want to find out the hard way.

Yeah exactly <:TheodoreRooseveltLaugh:585130800870195200>

Legal limit means "presumed impaired". That number itself is evidence of impairment, alone

With a lower number you need some other way to show impairment, unsafe to drive. So some moving violations, or driver's actions during the stop

Oh I see

It may depend a little on how your state law is written

But we have a charge for 0.08 and a charge for "less than safe"

I think many places have a .05

And as always 0 tolerance for under 21

Here they are talking about lowering it

Under 21 is 0.02 because the intoxilyzer can't read below that

If your BAC was 0.01 there's no way to know without blood draw

Problem with that is, you have to get the blood within three hours of the exact time the car stopped. One minute over? Evidence is not admissible.

And to get blood, you need a search warrant. To get a search warrant, you need a judge. And it's probably at night.

So you have to do your roadside investigation, establish PC for arrest, take him to jail, go fill out the warrant affidavit, by now at least one hour has passed