If you are like most people who live in Arkansas, you have probably heard about some tests that are administered by police officers when they suspect a driver might be drunk. These tests, called field sobriety tests, require people to do things like balance on one leg or walk in a line. Understanding what is involved in these tests and how accurate they really are is important for any driver in the state.
As explained by FieldSobrietyTests.org, some people might think these tests are used to prove that a driver is intoxicated but that is not true. Instead, these tests are used to support the possibility that a driver is impaired. This support then allows an officer to legally place the driver under arrest. They are akin to probable cause in other types of criminal cases.
Another important thing to know is that each of the three tests has a known rate of inaccuracy. The most accurate of the tests measures a jerking motion of the eyeball and it is only 77-percent accurate. The test that requires a person to balance on one leg and count aloud is accurate only 65 percent of the time. The walking test, in which a driver must follow a real or imaginary line, has an accuracy rate of 68 percent.
If you would like to learn more about the tests used by law enforcement officers during a drunk driving investigation and arrest, please feel free to visit the field sobriety test page of our Arkansas criminal and drunk driving defense website.