Drunk driving traffic stops are one way that police officers can stop drunk drivers from harming themselves or other people. For the people who are facing these charges, this isn’t much of a consolation. If you are facing charges for drunk driving, you have to work on your defense. This can encompass many points. One of these is why you were pulled over in the first place.
In order to conduct a traffic stop, a police officer must see you doing something illegal or have reason to believe that you are doing something illegal. Drunk driving is illegal. If a police officer has reasonable suspicion to think that you are driving drunk, he or she can pull you over.
Reasonable suspicion is something that has a lower standard than probable cause. An officer has reasonable suspicion of drunk driving if you are weaving in and out of lanes, driving too fast or too slow, turning without signaling or driving in an unsafe manner. Other actions might also lead an officer to think that you aren’t fully capable of driving.
During a drunk driving traffic stop, the officer will try to gather the evidence necessary so that he or she has probable cause to arrest you. Both the reasonable suspicion for the stop and the probable cause for an arrest are points that you might choose to focus on in your defense.
The goal of your defense is to bring up doubts about these points if they are focal points for you. Make sure that you carefully consider all defense strategies that you might use for your case.
Source: FindLaw, “What is Reasonable Suspicion for a DUI Stop?,” accessed March 24, 2017
