A guide to assist police officers to detect motorists driving while intoxicated or while impaired was created through research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The DUI – DWI detection guide includes training materials with video to instruct police officers and is also useful for DUI lawyers.
The DWI detection guide describes behaviors that can be used by officers to detect motorists who are likely to be driving while impaired. In this article, DWI means driving while impaired, a lower level of blood alcohol than DWI in some states where it means driving while intoxicated, and DUI means driving while impaired.
Researchers interviewed police officers from across the US to develop a list of more than 100 driving cues found to predict DWI with blood alcohol concentrations, or BACs, of 0.08 percent or greater. The list was reduced to 24 cues during three field studies involving hundreds of police officers and Troopers during more than 12,000 enforcement stops for DWI. The driving behaviors identified by the police officers are presented in the following four categories:
1) Problems in maintaining proper lane position
2) Speed and braking problems
3) Vigilance problems, and
4) Judgment problems.
The cues presented in these categories predict that a driver is driving while impaired 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 DWI is more than .50, or 50 percent. However, if you observe either of the weaving cues and any other cue listed, the probability of DWI jumps to at least .65, or 65 percent. Observing any two cues other than weaving indicates a probability of DWI of at least 50 percent, although some cues, such as swerving, accelerating for no reason, and driving on other than the designated roadway, have single-cue probabilities greater than 70 percent. The probability of DWI increases substantially when a driver exhibits more than one of the cues.
The research suggests that these training materials will be helpful to officers in:
- Detecting DUI & DWI impaired motorists
- Articulating observed behaviors on arrest reports
- Supporting officers’ expert testimony to improve conviction rates.
Continue reading about identifying DWI drivers:
- 24 Cues To Identify a DWI-DUI Driver
- Predictors To Identify a DWI-DUI Driver After Stop
- List of DWI-DUI Identification Cues
Philip L. Franckel, Esq.
DUI Lawyer
Tags: detecting DUI drivers, DUI attorney, dui detection, DUI lawyer, how police spot a DUI driver, how to spot a DUI driver