DUI Police Mistakes
Reader’s Question:
I often wonder how police officers in Alaska work, especially in a DUI arrest. Does police officer also make mistakes during a DUI stop?
Frida
Anchorage, AK
The straight answer would be yes, police officers also make mistakes during a DUI stop or investigation. They actually have this “Training Manual” of rules that they should follow when they conduct field sobriety tests. Some DUI lawyers study this manual so they would know exactly what questions to ask the police officers to see if he completely followed the manual’s directions. This could be powerful evidence in a DUI case that is frequently overlooked by defense lawyers.
If the manual’s directions were not completely followed by the arresting officer, the validity of the tests can be attacked. A successful challenge often results in the exclusion of the test evidence at trial; and this would significantly weaken the prosecutor’s DUI case. There have already been reports that police officers do things inconsistent with the manual’s material and these have been found in extremely large number of DUI cases. Police officers also don’t always use objective scoring as explained in the manual. More often than not, officers just simply subjectively decide whether or not a person failed the tests.
I Need To Find an Anchorage Alaska DUI Lawyer
Reader’s Question:
I wanna help my father get out of his DUI charge in Alaska. He has a good driving record over the years and it’s hard to believe that he was caught drunk driving. How will a DUI lawyer help him in his situation?
Francine
Anchorage, AK
There are a lot of things that a DUI lawyer can do for your father to help him on his DUI charge. The DUI lawyer can help him out on his Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) hearing to fight for his driver’s license. He must request this hearing within seven days of arrest and the DUI lawyer could be able to guide him on this.
Chemical tests or blood alcohol tests are not always right and the DUI lawyer knows several ways to find out the inaccuracy of the blood alcohol tests. And in doing so, the DUI lawyer could be able to successfully challenge the blood alcohol test results. Experienced DUI lawyers can actually get the maintenance records for the equipment used in the testing. They can also find out the results for the other persons who were tested around the time your father was tested. He has to be prepared, too because no defense is ready unless he is taught how to present himself on the witness stand.