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DUIs are misdemeanors?

Well 🤷‍♂️. If loading up a backpack worth of shit at cvs worth around $1k isn’t a crime, why is it a crime to be drunk on the street where you live?
If you could just shoplift a grand worth of stuff and not get arrested, we would have four Heisman trophies.
 
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Yes always trust what you hear. Cops force people to drink and then force them to brake a law so the cops can pull them over and practice owi’s. I’ve actually heard the opposite about Waterloo cops. They’re too busy to be worrying about traffic stops.
Thank you for your service
 
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That is false and is one the people misunderstand. The officer has 2 hours from time of stop to get a sample of breath, urine or blood. That doesn't mean the suspect has 2 hours to provide a sample. Case law dictates that once at the place of detention you must allow a reasonable amount of time for the suspect to make phone calls or to give a sample that the officer request. The courts have ruled 20-30 minutes is considered a reasonable amount of time to talk to whomever or to wait for someone to return a phone call to you.

If on a traffic stop and the officer has probable cause or reasonable suspicion to conduct standardized field sobriety test, you must comply. You can't just sit in the vehicle and stall and have no right to make phone calls to your attorney or anyone else until you are placed under arrest. You have every right to refuse SFST and or the PBT, but you can't just sit in your car and not comply.

Now I'll confuse you a little bit. There is a difference between OWI DOT implied consent and a criminal arrest. Implied consent which is the revocation of your driver's license the officer has 2 hours from time of PBT or arrest whichever comes first. However, if a officer doesn't get a sample within 2 hours, they can call a expert from the state that will testify what their BAC was at the time of stop or arrest by some fancy formula. OWI's can be confusing for people including some officers.
I'm a big supporter of Law Enforcement, but I had one occasion of "probable cause or reasonable suspicion" when I was asked to do a field sobriety test, the only one I have ever done or will ever do. My "crime" was a license plate bulb was out on my 2 year old car while driving at night. Not speeding, not driving erratic, just a license plate bulb out.

My no pics gal and I had been to our Company Christmas party and I honestly and correctly told the young man I had 2 drinks with dinner (I'm 6'0" - 198 lbs). I was polite, and told the truth, not slurring my words, or anything of the sort. Still I was taken out of the car and frisked, then asked to do a field sobriety test (It was about -10 wind chill at the time).

And I passed that field sobriety test no problem, but wait, this young Officer says I didn't pass it! I'm like WTF! (clearly this guy wants to bust somebody for drunk driving hopefully). By that time a more experienced Officer had shown up, and I could tell by the look on his face he was wondering what in the hell he was doing there out watching this and freezing his ass off.

So ultimately he says we need you to blow in this box. Fine. I blow in the damn box and he dejectedly looked at the results and asked if I wanted to see the result. By this time my politeness was wearing thin, I said no I'm freezing my ass off and just want to go home. Well, you passed, it's .03. I sarcastically said no kidding, that's been pretty clear for the past 45 minutes and I knew I had passed your stupid test, but here we are.

Point being that field sobriety test is a scam. I'm athletic and coordinated and clearly wasn't drunk and knew I did everything asked of me properly. I am assuming I can opt out of that scam in the future and just say get your damn box out and let's get this over with.
 
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I'm a big supporter of Law Enforcement, but I had one occasion of "probable cause or reasonable suspicion" when I was asked to do a field sobriety test, the only one I have ever done or will ever do. My "crime" was a license plate bulb was out on my 2 year old car while driving at night. Not speeding, not driving erratic, just a license plate bulb out.

My no pics gal and I had been to our Company Christmas party and I honestly and correctly told the young man I had 2 drinks with dinner (I'm 6'0" - 198 lbs). I was polite, and told the truth, not slurring my words, or anything of the sort. Still I was taken out of the car and frisked, then asked to do a field sobriety test (It was about -10 wind chill at the time).

And I passed that field sobriety test no problem, but wait, this young Officer says I didn't pass it! I'm like WTF! (clearly this guy wants to bust somebody for drunk driving hopefully). By that time a more experienced Officer had shown up, and I could tell by the look on his face he was wondering what in the hell he was doing there out watching this and freezing his ass off.

So ultimately he says we need you to blow in this box. Fine. I blow in the damn box and he dejectedly looked at the results and asked if I wanted to see the result. By this time my politeness was wearing thin, I said no I'm freezing my ass off and just want to go home. Well, you passed, it's .03. I sarcastically said no kidding, that's been pretty clear for the past 45 minutes and I knew I had passed your stupid test, but here we are.

Point being that field sobriety test is a scam. I'm athletic and coordinated and clearly wasn't drunk and knew I did everything asked of me properly. I am assuming I can opt out of that scam in the future and just say get your damn box out and let's get this over with.
The standardized field sobriety test are very accurate when you know how to conduct them properly. In all honesty, a lot of cops are not experienced which cause the problems you described. Everything the officer did to you was legal and by the book except for not having the experience or training to realize that you weren't intoxicated after you preformed field sobriety test. NO officer should base if they are going to arrest you based off of the PBT results. The officer should know if they are going to arrest you by the results of the sfst and the PBT should be used to confirm what you saw during those test. You can ask just to take the PBT (box), but the officer is trained and should conduct all sfst first before administering the PBT. At no time should you start with the PBT.
 
The standardized field sobriety test are very accurate when you know how to conduct them properly. In all honesty, a lot of cops are not experienced which cause the problems you described. Everything the officer did to you was legal and by the book except for not having the experience or training to realize that you weren't intoxicated after you preformed field sobriety test. NO officer should base if they are going to arrest you based off of the PBT results. The officer should know if they are going to arrest you by the results of the sfst and the PBT should be used to confirm what you saw during those test. You can ask just to take the PBT (box), but the officer is trained and should conduct all sfst first before administering the PBT. At no time should you start with the PBT.
I appreciate your response.

I guess my stance is I know 100% without question I'm under the legal limit to drive, so in the interest of my time I'm cutting thru the bullshit so I don't have an Officer making a "judgement" of my sobriety by using this "test".

This particular Officer had an agenda in my opinion, I passed that (wink,wink) test with no problem, and still on we went. I'm sorry, it was complete BS. So I'm assuming it is my legal right to say get the damn box out and let's get on with our lives PRIOR to doing any FST. Even if it isn't if this ever happens again that's exactly what I'm going to do.
 
I appreciate your response.

I guess my stance is I know 100% without question I'm under the legal limit to drive, so in the interest of my time I'm cutting thru the bullshit so I don't have an Officer making a "judgement" of my sobriety by using this "test".

This particular Officer had an agenda in my opinion, I passed that (wink,wink) test with no problem, and still on we went. I'm sorry, it was complete BS. So I'm assuming it is my legal right to say get the damn box out and let's get on with our lives PRIOR to doing any FST. Even if it isn't if this ever happens again that's exactly what I'm going to do.
You knew you were fine but the officer doesn’t. Just think of it liability wise. The officer stops you and can smell alcohol, you admit to consuming alcohol etc. He lets you go because you say you’re fine and then you get into a accident. You don’t think that puts the officer and his/her employer at risk? Once a officer has reason to believe you’ve been drinking they are trained to make sure you’re not over the legal limit. We can’t take your word for it. Everyone always says they’re fine to drive, not drunk and only had one or two.
It’s not your legal right to ask just to take a pbt. Officers are trained to do standardized field sobriety test the same way. That’s where the name of the test comes from. The pbt isn’t admisable in court (unless defense brings it up) so we just can’t do the pbt. Even if we could, then defense attorneys will say we based the arrest of the pbt and not the wink wink sfst test. Trust me the test are accurate if the officer does them correctly and knows what to look for.
 
You knew you were fine but the officer doesn’t. Just think of it liability wise. The officer stops you and can smell alcohol, you admit to consuming alcohol etc. He lets you go because you say you’re fine and then you get into a accident. You don’t think that puts the officer and his/her employer at risk? Once a officer has reason to believe you’ve been drinking they are trained to make sure you’re not over the legal limit. We can’t take your word for it. Everyone always says they’re fine to drive, not drunk and only had one or two.
It’s not your legal right to ask just to take a pbt. Officers are trained to do standardized field sobriety test the same way. That’s where the name of the test comes from. The pbt isn’t admisable in court (unless defense brings it up) so we just can’t do the pbt. Even if we could, then defense attorneys will say we based the arrest of the pbt and not the wink wink sfst test. Trust me the test are accurate if the officer does them correctly and knows what to look for.
I realize you don't know me, nor did this Officer, but I'm not some punk kid out joyriding, which should have been readily apparent during our lengthy initial conversation. I got pulled over for a license plate light being out. That was my "crime".

My other "crime" was being polite and honest I guess, which apparently makes me a unicorn.

And lastly, I've now taken one Standardized Field Sobriety Test in my lengthy lifetime, which I 100% passed without question. But yet there I was blowing in a box at the end to prove my innocence. So forgive me for thinking that "test" isn't a scam. I'm 1 for 1 living proof that on that night it was most certainly was. So trying to convince me otherwise..........sorry, not gonna happen.

I am very much pro-Law Enforcement, but at the end of that particular evening my support was temporarily wavering. 🙂
 
I'm open to the idea of individuals calling LEO and paying a thousand dollar ride home. Not all towns have cabs.

I'd rather they do that than put their life and other lives a death/injury

Maybe a bad idea, but hey, at least I'm trying to think outside of the box.
 
I realize you don't know me, nor did this Officer, but I'm not some punk kid out joyriding, which should have been readily apparent during our lengthy initial conversation. I got pulled over for a license plate light being out. That was my "crime".

My other "crime" was being polite and honest I guess, which apparently makes me a unicorn.

And lastly, I've now taken one Standardized Field Sobriety Test in my lengthy lifetime, which I 100% passed without question. But yet there I was blowing in a box at the end to prove my innocence. So forgive me for thinking that "test" isn't a scam. I'm 1 for 1 living proof that on that night it was most certainly was. So trying to convince me otherwise..........sorry, not gonna happen.

I am very much pro-Law Enforcement, but at the end of that particular evening my support was temporarily wavering. 🙂
Sorry you had a bad experience, but you did violate a traffic law, were drinking and were not arrested because you weren’t intoxicated. Things worked out for you in the end, but it sucks it was a cluster.
 
Sorry you had a bad experience, but you did violate a traffic law, were drinking and were not arrested because you weren’t intoxicated. Things worked out for you in the end, but it sucks it was a cluster.
Well you're allowed to drink as a 50 year old adult in America. This "violation of the law" should have consisted of "Sir, you have a license plate light out, just thought I'd let you know so you can get it fixed".

Instead he went on a fishing expedition and came up empty. I wonder how many actual drunk drivers passed us while we were wasting all this time for my egregious "violation"? LOL!
 
The police are there to protect & SERVE. The SERVE part is where the the public servant takes time to talk to the citizens, have a conversation, and assess the situation.

She blew 0.0 and the cop says she failed her field test. Bullcrap. Just another douche with a badge looking to make arrests and assert his authority.

He should have done the right thing, realized these people were no danger to themselves or others and assisted them home. Instead he wastes the public's time on this stupid incident.
There have been cases in which a drunk was taken home and then left, getting in an accident. That deters many officers from helping drunks home.
 
That is false and is one the people misunderstand. The officer has 2 hours from time of stop to get a sample of breath, urine or blood. That doesn't mean the suspect has 2 hours to provide a sample. Case law dictates that once at the place of detention you must allow a reasonable amount of time for the suspect to make phone calls or to give a sample that the officer request. The courts have ruled 20-30 minutes is considered a reasonable amount of time to talk to whomever or to wait for someone to return a phone call to you.

If on a traffic stop and the officer has probable cause or reasonable suspicion to conduct standardized field sobriety test, you must comply. You can't just sit in the vehicle and stall and have no right to make phone calls to your attorney or anyone else until you are placed under arrest. You have every right to refuse SFST and or the PBT, but you can't just sit in your car and not comply.

Now I'll confuse you a little bit. There is a difference between OWI DOT implied consent and a criminal arrest. Implied consent which is the revocation of your driver's license the officer has 2 hours from time of PBT or arrest whichever comes first. However, if a officer doesn't get a sample within 2 hours, they can call a expert from the state that will testify what their BAC was at the time of stop or arrest by some fancy formula. OWI's can be confusing for people including some officers.
I’ve wondered this, I’ve taken many a possibly intoxicated crash victim to the hospital. Does that two hour window apply then?
 
I’ve wondered this, I’ve taken many a possibly intoxicated crash victim to the hospital. Does that two hour window apply then?
Yes it does. For criminal purposes it’s 2 hours from the time of incident and for implied consent it’s 2 hours from pbt or arrest so we usually wait until they are in the hospital before we give them a pbt. That’s when the clock starts for accidents that are transported.
 
And since nobody knows how to conduct them properly they aren't worth a shit,... I'll never do one.
Yes no one knows how to do them :rolleyes: You caught us. Feel free to refuse the test and you’ll be placed under arrest, that makes our job much more easier.
 
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