Citizen Refusing Field Sobriety Test at DUI Checkpoint



Download MP3 here. This a five-minute recording of a citizen who refuses a field sobriety test at a DUI checkpoint (Further analysis of this recording is given in this blog post). After commenting that all of the cars in front of him are being diverted to a secondary inspection area, an officer approaches the car. At 0:40, the officer tells the man to roll his window down all the way, though the man protests, and the officer tells him he has to. He asks the man where he is coming from and if he has been drinking, the citizen denies it, then the officer tells him that he smells alcohol. The man asks the officer if he also sees red watery eyes, which the officer laughs at, then sends the man to the secondary area.

The officer at the secondary checkpoint is much more hostile than the first officer. At 2:30, the citizen refuses to answer the officer's questions, though the officer persists and the man admits that he has had water to drink. He then makes the man exit the vehicle to perform a field sobriety test. The man refuses, and the officer becomes more aggressive, telling the man that he will be arrested if he doesn't comply, and that he has probably cause for a sobriety test because the man entered the checkpoint. The man says he won't do the test, but he will do a breathalizer test.

At 3:45, the officer very aggressively demands that the man stand in front of his car with his feet together, yells that it is for his safety and if he doesn't he will be placed in handcuffs, and makes the citizen acknowledge that he "is calling the shots, and not you." At 4:00, the officer asks if the man has an attitude problem with him, and the man response that he simply doesn't want to do a field sobriety test. When the citizen asks the second officer if the machine has been calibrated, he responds that "no, we just pull this out whenever we feel like it...[..] Why do you have to make this difficult?"

The citizen blows into the machine, and when it beeps, the officer simply says, "Okay, get out of here." The citizen snarkily asks if the officer is sure he doesn't required a fifteen minute observation period, to which the officer replies, "Don't make me go the whole nine yards and detain you. Just because you blow zero doesn't mean I have to let you go until I finish my investigation. Do you understand that? Do you understand that? Do you understand that?" Another officer asks, "Why are you making this harder than it needs to be?" The citizen agrees to leave.

In the citizen's own words:
"I did not have any alcoholic beverage that night. Things that I was allowed to do but was held against me. I kept my window rolled up with a crack because I am allowed to do so. I refused to answer whether I had anything to drink. (This was when he magically smelled alcohol on me). I refused their field sobriety test. "

Location has been deliberately omitted at the request of the submitter.