A recent experiment has this Cary/Durham/Raleigh D.U.I. Lawyer a little bit nervous. A D.U.I. case necessarily rests very heavily on the visual observations of the police officers — indeed, if a motorist refuses to take a breathalyzer test it may very well be the only piece of evidence used to convict or a D.U.I. defendant. So, the ability of the officer to correctly assess potential symptoms of intoxication (difficulty walking a straight line, slurred speech, blood-shot eyes, etc.) becomes extremely important. So, just how well can police officers gauge if someone is intoxicated or not? A group of scientists at Rutger’s University Alcohol Behavior Laboratory decided to find out.
In the experiment, 30 trained and experienced D.U.I. officers sat in a room as various subjects were brought in one at a time for questioning and observation. Each subject had consumed various amounts of alcohol (ranging from a minuscule amount to consuming well over the legal limit to operate a vehicle). The D.U.I. officers were then asked to gauge each subject’s level of sobriety or intoxication.
How well were the D.U.I. officers able to correctly gauge the level of intoxication (or sobriety) of the subjects — people whom they had never met before and questioned and observed for just a few moments (about the time of a typical traffic stop)? Shockingly, only about 25% of the time! The officers were no better able to estimate whether (and how much) the subjects had been drinking alcohol than ordinary laypeople. Not very reassuring.
