THE USE OF FIELD SOBRIETY
TESTS IN DRUNK DRIVING ENFORCEMENT
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November 9, 2000 |
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2000-R-0873 |
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By: James J. Fazzalaro,
Principal Research Analyst |
You asked for a review of
the use of field sobriety tests for drunk driving enforcement
and, specifically, the so-called "California tests." You
wanted to know the scientific basis used for giving the field
sobriety test battery, how it is determined if someone passes
or fails the tests, and what Connecticut cases allow this
information to be used to remove a license.
SUMMARY
Until the mid 1970s,
police departments around the country used many different
types of field sobriety tests in enforcing drunk driving laws.
There was little consistency or standardization in the tests
being used. Concerned over this lack of consistency, the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
initiated an effort to identify the best tests for enforcement
use and standardize the way they were administered and scored.
NHTSA sponsored a 1977 study in which researcher were asked to
identify the tests being used throughout the country and
recommend a "best" test battery for further development. Out
of the dozens of different tests then in use, the researchers
identified three-the walk-and-turn, one-leg-stand, and
horizontal gaze nystagmus tests-as the most accurate,
practical, and reliable tests for enforcement purposes. A
subsequent 1981 study developed a standardized set of
administration and scoring principles intended to promote
consistency in the use of these tests. These three tests are
now known as the Standardized Field Sobriety Test Battery and
form the basis of a NHTSA training program for police
officers.
The test battery is
currently used in all states, but there are no mandatory
requirements for use and many other field sobriety tests also
remain in use. However, NHTSA maintains that only the
three-test battery has been validated for accuracy and
endorses no other tests as equally reliable.
The NHTSA training
protocol requires police officers to follow the designated
administration and scoring rules exactly or else the accuracy
and validity of the tests are compromised. While the tests
have wide acceptance in the drunk driving enforcement
community, attorneys who specialize in drink driving cases, a
number of researchers, and others have raised numerous issues
and identified significant problems with both the scientific
underpinnings and administration of field sobriety tests. One
of the most significant of these criticisms is the assertion
that while the field tests have been developed solely for the
purpose of assisting police officers in making drunk driving
probable cause determinations in the field and are not capable
of determining actual impairment, the courts frequently accept
them as evidence for exactly the opposite reason for which
they were created.
NHTSA accepts and endorses
only its standardized three-test battery and discourages
reliance on other nonvalidated field sobriety tests. The use
of field sobriety tests is usually the last of three phases of
information gathering in which police officers engage prior to
making a drunk driving arrest decision. The first two phases
of the pre-arrest process involve the observations officers
make and the conclusions they draw while observing vehicle
operation prior to stopping it and while interacting with the
driver before he exits the vehicle. Observations made during
all three contribute to the officer's determination of
probable cause for arrest and have relevance in court.
In the NHTSA standardized
test battery, each of the three tests is administered and
scored separately. Each test has a specific number of scoring
points or "clues" that determine how the suspect should be
classified. If the suspect exhibits a designated number of
these clues in a particular test, the NHTSA guidelines say
that the person can be classified as likely to have a blood
alcohol level above the .10% limit of most state drunk driving
laws. For example, if a suspect exhibits two of eight possible
scoring clues on the walk-and-turn test, the NHTSA guidelines
state that there is a 68% probability that the person's blood
alcohol level is above .10%. The probabilities for the other
two tests detecting someone with illegal intoxication levels
based on the scoring criteria are 65% for the one-leg-stand
test and 77% for the horizontal gaze nystagmus test. NHTSA
maintains that the identification probability for the
walk-and-turn and nystagmus test combined is 80%.
Other than the horizontal
gaze nystagmus test, field sobriety tests have generally been
treated by Connecticut courts as nonscientific evidence that
can be submitted to the jury for consideration as observations
of a defendant's balance, coordination, and ability to follow
directions to which it could apply its common knowledge. In
1995, the appellate court ruled that the horizontal gaze
nystagmus test was, in fact, scientific evidence that required
special foundation before being admissible (State v.
Merritt). This concept was further developed in a 1998
decision (State v. Carlson). We found no case decisions
that purport to deny the admissibility of evidence stemming
from administration of other types of field sobriety tests and
they appear to be generally acceptable in court as part of a
fabric of observations a police officer makes that juries are
deemed capable of weighing within their common knowledge. A
1998 decision (State v. Gracia) specifically rejected
the contention that field sobriety tests other than the
horizontal gaze nystagmus test should be considered scientific
evidence subject to special conditions for admission.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS
The "scientific" basis on
which rests most of the credibility for use of field sobriety
tests in drunk driving enforcement consists mainly of two
NHTSA-sponsored studies conducted in 1977 and 1981, and
several follow up research projects intended to validate the
tests using data gathered in the field.
Initial Field
Sobriety Test Research (1977)
Until approximately the
mid-1970s, there was very little consistency among police
department practices in selecting and administering field
tests they used during drunk driving enforcement. Different
police agencies used different tests and administered and
interpreted them differently. The Los Angeles Police
Department was among the first to use field tests in the
enforcement and arrest process so they generally became known
as the "California" tests in the law enforcement community.
Because of the inconsistencies exhibited in the selection and
administration of field sobriety tests and the existence of
little or no scientific evidence of their validity or
effectiveness, NHTSA began to take an interest in identifying
the best tests police officers could use at the roadside. In
1977, NHTSA awarded a contract to three researchers at the
Southern California Research Institute in Los Angeles,
California to study the problem of police identification of
drunk or alcohol-impaired drivers. The study contract ran
until March 1981.
The grant required the
researchers to examine the various field sobriety tests then
in use throughout the country and determine a clinical
relationship between the performed test and alcohol
impairment. They had to establish a direct link between
alcohol impairment and the specific test failure.
Beginning in 1975, the
researchers rode with police officers in a number of states
and from the many types of field tests being conducted they
developed a list of about 16 tests they felt were feasible as
potential sobriety tests. Following a small group pilot test
of all the tests, the researchers narrowed the list to six
tests that would be the subject of the 1977 NHTSA study, along
with four alternate tests. The selected tests were evaluated
in laboratory experiments using 238 test subjects and 10
police officers who evaluated the subjects using the tests and
had to decide whether they should be arrested or released had
the tests been performed at roadside, assuming a legal
threshold of .10% BAC as the basis for arrest.
The 1977 study had three
stated objectives:
1. To evaluate currently used physical coordination tests to
determine their relationship to intoxication and impairment
2. To develop more sensitive tests that would provide more
reliable evidence of impairment, and
3. To standardize the tests and observations and thus given
police more consistent evidence for use in court.
(M. Burns & H. Moskowitz,
Psychophysical Tests for DWI Arrest, DOT-HS-5-01242,
January 1977)
The six selected tests
evaluated in the study are explained below.
·
One Leg Stand-The subject must stand with heels together with
arms at his sides, raise one leg about 6 inches off the
ground, and hold that position for 30 seconds without swaying,
using his arms for balance, or putting the foot down.
·
Walk-and-Turn-The subject must walk nine steps heel-to-toe in
a straight line, turn by pivoting on his left foot, and walk
nine heel-to-toe steps back without swaying, stopping,
stumbling, using his arms for balance, taking too few or too
many steps, or walking in other than a straight line.
·
Finger-to-Nose-The subject must stand erect with closed eyes,
head tipped back, and hands extended horizontally. He then
must touch the tip of the index finger to the tip of the nose,
using both the left and right hand as the officer instructs.
·
Finger Count-The subject must touch and count each finger in
succession counting "1-2-3-4-5, 5-4-3-2-1" out loud.
·
Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN)-The subject must follow the
movement of a small light or object without moving his head.
The officer looks for jerking of the eyes or "nystagmus" when
the moving object is at an angle of 45 degrees or less.
Besides determining the angle at which nystagmus begins, the
officer also must observe and evaluate any breakdown in smooth
eye pursuit of the target and the distinctiveness of the
nystagmus at the point at which the eye has moved as far to
the side as it will go.
·
Finger Tracing-The subject traces a defined figure with his
finger and the police officer observes any deviation.
The alternate tests that
also were examined in the 1977 study included the Romberg
Balance (feet together, arms at sides, eyes closed, and head
tilted backwards while the officer observes for body sway),
subtraction, counting backward, and letter cancellation tests.
Subjects were all alcohol
consumers and were instructed not to eat for four hours prior
to the experiments. They were given measured doses of alcohol
such that they would have BACs ranging from 0 to .15%, but the
tests subjects did not know the amount of the dose each
received. Officers had to administer the test package and
determine if the person should likely be arrested for having a
BAC at or above .10%.
The researchers in the
1977 study concluded that all of the field sobriety tests
examined were "alcohol sensitive," but that the walk-and-turn,
one-leg-stand, and horizontal gaze nystagmus tests were the
most effective at correlating with BACs of .10% or more. They
considered these the best tests for further development and
validation.
Some of the most
significant conclusions the researchers drew are summarized
below.
·
While all of the tests examined were found to be "alcohol
sensitive", that is, performance was affected by alcohol
consumption to some degree, they were not all equally
accurate.
·
The arrest/release decisions made by the police officers were
correct for 74% of the test participants with the high rate of
false arrest decisions due, in the researchers opinions to the
officers adopting a lower level of impairment as a decision
criterion than would typically be applied in the field.
·
An alternate method of interpreting the subjects' test results
using a linear regression statistical technique yielded an 83%
correct classification figure.
·
The one-leg-stand, walk-and-turn, and HGN tests were
considered to be the most accurate and reliable and were
recommended for further evaluation as a standardized test
battery.
·
The HGN test was the most reliable of the three tests with a
correlation coefficient of 0.68, compared to 0.55 for the
walk-and-turn test and 0.48 for the one-leg-stand test. The
combined correlation coefficient for the three-test battery
was 0.702. (In effect, the higher this number is within a
range of 0 to 1.0, the more the test elements correlated with
identifying subjects with the target BAC of .10% or more).
·
If balance and walking skills are examined and the eyes are
checked for the jerking nystagmus movement, the officer will
have as much information about intoxication level as can be
obtained at roadside.
Developing the
Standardized Sobriety Field Test Battery (1981)
NHTSA subsequently awarded
the Southern California Research Institute researchers a
second contract to evaluate only the walk-and-turn,
one-leg-stand, and HGN tests as a standardized test battery.
The study objectives were to: (1) standardize the
administration and scoring procedures for the three-test
battery; (2) determine the reliability and validity of the
standardized test battery in the laboratory; and (3) assess
its feasibility, utility, and validity in the field. (V.
Tharp, M. Burns & H. Moskowitz, Development and Field Test
of Psychophysical Tests for DWI Arrest, DOT-HS-8-01970,
March 1981).
The 1981 study essentially
followed the same laboratory test procedure as the 1977 study
except that it was limited entirely to these three tests.
There were 297 test subjects who were given alcohol doses
resulting in BAC levels of 0 to .18%. The researchers
standardized the administration guidelines, test instructions,
test demonstrations, and scoring criteria with 25 pilot test
subjects.
The researchers reported
that, on average, the police officers' estimates of the BACs
of the people they tested differed by .03% from their actual
measured BACs. The officers were able to classify 81% of the
test subjects with respect to whether their BACs were above or
below the .10% level.
The researchers also
conducted a limited three-month field evaluation which
resulted in incomplete data to reach any conclusions, but the
researchers felt that trends in the field test suggested
"positive results will be obtained if the test battery is
widely used." They concluded that no further research was
necessary to standardize the tests but a more comprehensive
field evaluation was necessary and future research should take
into account police attitude and motivation, an adequate
timeframe for data collection, and numerous issues involved in
obtaining law enforcement cooperation for such an effort.
Validating the SFST
Battery (1995)
Although there have been
several studies attempting to validate the SFST battery under
field conditions, the one that is most frequently cited in the
literature by those on both sides of the drunk driving
enforcement issue is the 1995 Colorado validation study.
Funded by NHTSA, the study was conducted for the Colorado
Department of Transportation and, once again, the principal
researcher was Dr. Marcelline Burns of the Southern California
Research Institute. In her introduction to the final report,
Dr. Burns makes two notable observations about the previous
research that developed the SFTB. First, she notes that it "is
clearly relevant" to ask if the methods used in the
experiments were scientifically sound, but it should be
recognized that the results "are now only indirectly
enlightening about current roadside use of the tests." She
notes further that controlled laboratory conditions are less
variable and therefore "may be less challenging" than the
highly varied conditions usually encountered in the field.
Dr. Burns second point
about her prior research is that police officer experience
with the SFSB is "key to the skill and confidence with which
they use them as a basis for their decisions." She observes
that the officers who participated in the 1977 and 1981
studies had not been trained in administering and scoring the
tests until just before the experiments. Thus they had no time
or opportunity to gain skill and confidence in the tests.
Since a number of years have passed with police officers
gaining experience in using the test battery, she believes it
is reasonable to "expect that their decisions based on use of
the tests would be more accurate that the officers used in the
original research." (M. Burns, A Colorado Validation Study
of the Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) Battery,
Final Report Submitted to the Colorado Department of
Transportation, November 1995, p.1).
She identified the
essential question to be examined in the study to be "How
accurate are the arrest decisions which are made by
experienced, skilled officers under roadside conditions when
they rely on SFSTs?" She noted that a broadly applicable
answer to this question could not be found in laboratory
research and, instead, required field data that provides
information about real world arrest decisions made by officers
trained under the NHTSA guidelines for administering the test
battery.
Volunteers from seven
Colorado police agencies submitted records from every
administration of the SFST battery over a five-month period.
This produced 305 records for evaluation. A significant
majority of the records produced for the study were provided
in the first two month of the five-month period. The
evaluation ultimately considered the correctness of only 234
of the 305 records since only cases for which a BAC was
determined by a breath or blood specimen were considered. A
subject's BAC was unknown if he was released when no observer
was present, or if an arrested driver refused to provide a
specimen (p.11). Dr. Burns notes that breath specimens were
obtained "either with instruments approved for evidential
tests or with PBTs at roadside (p.13). (PBTs are preliminary
breath test devices which are used prior to arrest in some
states, but are criticized by some as not reliably accurate.)
The study concluded that
for the 234 subjects who provided BAC samples, the police
officers decisions to arrest or release were correct in 86% of
the cases. Decisions to arrest were correct in 93% of the
sample used and decisions to release were correct in 64% of
the sample. (It should be noted that the Colorado study
included BACs down to .05% in the arrest category since
Colorado law at the time defined impaired driving as a BAC of
.05% to .099%.)
Criticisms of the
Field Sobriety Test Research
Manuals for defense
attorneys raise a number of points regarding alleged
weaknesses in the research supporting field sobriety tests
generally and the SFST battery specifically. These manuals
also assert that many subjective factors may intrude on
objective administration of the field tests. The manuals cite
NHTSA statements in its training documents to the effect that
deviation from the standardized procedures for administering
and scoring the tests detrimentally affects their accuracy.
Among the other factors the manuals identify include the
physical conditions of the testing environment, the particular
characteristics of the individual, the pressures placed on the
individual, the unusual nature of the tests themselves, and
the possibility of a police officer's individual
predisposition towards arrest affecting his interpretation of
driver behavior (Richard Erwin, Defense of Drunk Driving
Cases, Chapter 10; Lawrence Taylor, Drunk Driving
Defense, Fifth Ed., Chapter 4; John O'Brien, Defending
DWI Cases in Connecticut, Second Edition, Section B;
Phillip Price, Jr., Field Sobriety Testing,
Instructional Material, National College for DUI Defense,
Harvard University, July 1996). Other significant research
criticizes the SFTB research and attacks their use at trail as
a basis for probable cause (Nowaczyk & Cole, Separating
Myth from Fact: A Review of Research on Field Sobriety Tests,
Champion, Aug. 1995; Simpson, Attacking NHTSA's Three-Test
Field Sobriety Assessment, 5 DWI J.: L & Sci 9, 1988;
Compton, Pilot Test of Selected DWI Detection Procedures
for Use in Sobriety Checkpoints, DOT-HS-806-724)).
Erwin discusses these
perceived weaknesses in the research at length in his treatise
and some of his major criticisms are briefly summarized below.
One of Erwin's major points with respect to the use of field
sobriety tests is the apparent contradiction between what they
were developed for and how they are admitted by many courts.
He states that the primary purpose for developing the SFST
battery was to assist the police officer in making an arrest
decision. The tests were correlated with their ability to
determine whether a subject's BAC was at least .10% or below
.10%. They were not correlated directly with driving
impairment nor are they capable of determining if a person's
driving ability is actually impaired. To a significant degree,
neither the researchers who have conducted most of the seminal
research on field sobriety tests or NHTSA itself appear to
disagree substantively with this assessment. A recent report
on validation of the SFST battery at BACs below .10% states,
"Driving a motor vehicle is a very complex activity that
involves a wide variety of tasks and operator capabilities. It
is unlikely that complex human performance, such as that
required to safely drive an automobile, can be measured at
roadside. The constraints imposed by roadside testing
conditions were recognized by the developers of NHTSA's SFST
battery. As a consequence, they pursued the development of
tests that would provide statistically valid and reliable
indications of a driver's BAC rather than indications of
driving impairment. The link between BAC and driving
impairment is a separate issue, involving entirely different
research methods. ..." (J. Stuster & M. Burns, Validation of
the Standardized Field Sobriety Test Battery at BACs Below
0.10 Percent, Anacapa Sciences, Inc. NHTSA, August 1998, p.
28.)
Erwin states that courts
have usually admitted field sobriety test results as evidence
of impairment, but not as evidence of a specific BAC, and
usually not even as evidence of whether someone's BAC is above
a certain level. This, he feels, leads to the apparent
contradiction that the courts will not accept the SFST battery
for the purpose for which they were developed and the method
by which they were validated, but will accept them for
purposes for which they have not been directly studied or
validated (Erwin, Defense of Drunk Driving Cases, Sec.
10.09(6)).
Some of the other major
criticisms in the literature are summarized below. We have
presented them as propounded by the critics, but note that
counterpoints to these assertions have been made in the
literature as well.
·
The 1977 study indicates that 47% of the subjects who would
have been arrested based on the test battery had BACs less
than .10% and that this false positive rate only decreased
slightly to 32% in the subsequent 1981 study. Erwin implies
that either of these percentages is unacceptably high. He
cites a suggestion advanced in by Nowaczyk and Cole that this
improvement may have been a bias introduced in the latter
study when fewer test subjects were selected to have BACs near
the critical .10% level (22% in the 1981 study compared to
almost 33% in the 1977 study) coupled with the easier task of
identifying subjects with much higher or much lower BACs
(Erwin, Sec. 10-09(6) citing Nowaczyk & Cole, Separating
Myth From Fact: A Review of Research on the Field Sobriety
Tests, Champion, August 1995, p. 40).
·
Test subjects in the original studies were not adequately
screened for the presence of drugs which could have affected
the behaviors the police officers were observing, particularly
with respect to the mistakes made in categorizing test
subjects with no or moderate BACs as arrest candidates.
·
The test results did not reproduce themselves well and thus
are not as scientifically reliable as the researchers claimed.
Critics, such as Nowaczyk and Cole, assert that to be
considered scientifically reliable, tests should show a
reliability coefficient in the high .80s to .90s. (A
coefficient at or close to 0 would indicate no reliability or
consistency in the test results while one close to 1.0
indicates a very high degree of reliability.) They assert that
the test-retest portion of the 1977 study, in which 100 of the
original test subjects were brought back for retesting two
weeks later by the same officers, yielded a reliability
coefficient of only 0.77 which they state indicates that 23%
of the variability in test results is due to scoring errors.
When the same subjects were tested at the same doses by
different officers, the reliability coefficient dropped to
0.57. In the 1981 study, the reliability correlations ranged
from .60 to .80.
·
The correlation coefficients of the three tests were not
sufficiently high to establish them as scientifically valid
methods for determining BACs.
·
The research developing and standardizing the SFST battery
does not establish a baseline level of performance for the
test maneuvers that accounts for differences in age, gender,
physical stature and condition, and coordination. Critics also
assert that the test subject pool in the 1977 and 1981
research was too heavily dominated by males and persons
between 21 and 35 years old to be considered reliable in
determining what typical test performance should be in the
entire population.
·
Much of the significantly lower rate of false positives found
in the 1995 Colorado validation study (7.4% compared to 47% in
the 1977 study and 32% in the 1981 study) can be explained by
the lower BAC arrest criterion of .05% that was necessary
under the Colorado law than to training and experience factors
associated with the participating police officers.
THE PRE-ARREST
ENFORCEMENT PROCESS AND THE ROLE OF FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS
The enforcement process
that typically leads up to a drunk driving arrest can
generally be separated into three fairly distinct phases. The
NHTSA, which establishes training and certification standards
for training police officers in drunk driving enforcement
identifies them in its training manuals as actions taken by
police officers (1) while the vehicle is in motion, (2) during
the initial personal contact with the presumed suspect, and
(3) the pre-arrest screening process. Administration of field
sobriety tests is the main component of this third phase. All
three phases generally have the same objective, e.g., to
provide the enforcement officer with a basis for determining
whether there is probable cause to arrest the suspect for
driving under the influence of alcohol.
The NHTSA manual states
that each phase represents a set of actions and observations
that should be used by the officer to answer three questions.
These are:
1. Should I stop the vehicle?
2. Should the driver exit?
3. Is there probable cause to arrest the suspect for DWI?
(DWI Detection and
Standardized Field Sobriety Testing, Student Manual,
NHTSA Report No. HS 178 R10/95 (1995), Sec. IV-3, Exhibit 4-2)
The manual states that all
of the information gathered in these phases is supposed to
both assist the officer in the decision making process and
gather and accumulate evidence in a form that can be most
effectively utilized in court.
Phase I-The Vehicle
in Motion
Except when drunk driving
enforcement occurs through established sobriety checkpoints or
at an accident scene, the first interaction with a police
officer occurs when things about a particular vehicle draw the
officer's attention and indicate to him that the vehicle
should be stopped and investigated. Sometimes this may be
unrelated to the driver's actions, such as when there is an
obvious equipment defect or an expired registration or
inspection sticker. But NHTSA has identified a number of
visual driving cues that it recommends police officers use to
associate with alcohol-impaired driving. Because this material
is widely distributed to police agencies and included in the
recommended NHTSA training program, it generally has become
the initial basis upon which they begin to establish probable
cause in drunk driving enforcement.
This material was first
published in 1981 as Visual Detection of Driving While
Intoxicated-An Explanation of the DWI Detection Guide
(DOT-HS-805711). It listed 20 driving cues that NHTSA believe
its research showed were the best ones for discriminating
night-time drunk drivers (.10 BAC or more) from night-time
sober drivers. The cues were based on field studies where
4,600 patrol stops were correlated with BAC measurements.
NHTSA maintained that the 20 cues could be associated with 90%
of all drunk driving detections. The detection guide also
assigned a probability to each of the cues purporting to
indicate the relative probability that a driver exhibiting the
cue was driving with a BAC of .10% or more. But NHTSA
cautioned that the probability values were intended primarily
to emphasize the relative importance of a particular cue and
did not endorse using them when testifying in court.
The probability values
ranged from 65% for turning with a wide radius and straddling
a center or lane marker line to 30% for driving with
headlights turned off or rapidly accelerating or decelerating.
Seven of the 20 cues indicated a probability of more than 50%,
four indicated a 50% probability, and the remaining nine a
probability of less than 50%. But NHTSA also maintained that
when more than one cue was observed, the officer should add 10
to the highest probability of an observed cue. For example,
observing a driver weaving within a lane or between lanes
(50%) and showing too slow a response to a traffic signal
(40%) should be interpreted as a 60% probability that the
driver had a BAC of .10% or more. Thus the highest probability
that could be inferred through these cues was 75%, but NHTSA
also asserted that police could use this system for predicting
BACs of .05% by adding 15 to the cue's probability value.
NHTSA reissued its visual
detection guide in 1998 based on additional field studies it
commissioned, ostensibly for the purpose of adapting the guide
for BACs down to .08%. It added four additional cues, some of
which describe behaviors that could only be observed after the
vehicle has been stopped or signaled to stop, revised some of
the probability percentages, and included an additional set of
post-stop cues that could be used when observing the driver's
behavior once the vehicle was stopped.
The new guide is slightly
more difficult to interpret than the 1981 version in that it
does not list the cues and their probability rating
individually. Instead it groups them into four categories and
specifies the range of probabilities within the category. The
cue groupings are explained below.
Problems Maintaining
Proper Lane Position-50%/75%
Weaving within lane,
weaving across lane lines, straddling a lane line, swerving,
turning with a wide radius, drifting, or almost striking a
vehicle or other object.
Speed and Braking
Problems-45%/70%
Stopping problems (too
far, too short, or too jerky), accelerating or decelerating
for no apparent reason, varying speed, or slow speed (10 mph
or more under the speed limit.
Vigilance
Problems-55%/65%
Driving in opposing lanes
or wrong way on one-way road, slow response to traffic
signals, slow or failed response to officer's signals,
stopping in lane for no apparent reason, driving without
headlights at night, or failure to signal a turn or lane
change or signaling that is inconsistent with the action
taken.
Judgment
Problems-35%/90%
Following too closely,
improper or unsafe lane change, illegal or improper turn (too
fast, jerky, sharp, etc.), driving on other that the
designated roadway, stopping inappropriately in response to
officer, inappropriate or unusual behavior (throwing objects,
arguing, etc.), appearing to be impaired (slouching, staring
straight ahead with eyes fixed, tightly gripping the steering
wheel, face close to the windshield, other indicators of
appearance consistent with impairment.)
Post Stop Cues-85%
Difficulty with motor
vehicle controls; difficulty exiting vehicle; fumbling with
driver's license or registration; repeating questions or
comments; swaying, unsteadiness, or balance problems; leaning
on the vehicle or other object; slurred speech; slow response
to officer or necessity for officer to repeat questions;
providing incorrect information or changing answers; odor of
alcohol.
The reissued detection
guide explains the interrelationship of the individual cues
differently. It states that if a driver is observed weaving in
a lane or across lane lines, there is a 50% probability of a
BAC of .08% or more, but if either weaving cue is observed
with any other cue, the probability becomes 65%. Observing two
cues other than weaving indicates a probability of at least
50%, although some cues such as swerving, accelerating for no
apparent reason, or driving on other than the designated
roadway have single-cue probabilities of more than 70%.
Phase II-Personal
Interaction with the Driver
The second phase of
enforcement is the police officer's face-to-face driver
observations and interview and, if the process proceeds
further, observations of how the driver exits the vehicle and
responds to the officer's directions. Sometimes, the officer
may use pre-exit tests aimed at testing the driver's divided
attention function or physical condition. This phase of the
enforcement process is somewhat less defined procedurally and
individualized to the particular officer or department policy.
Nevertheless, the general thrust of the encounter is for the
officer to elicit responses from the suspect and make
observations as to his appearance, demeanor, speech, and
attitude that the officer can use to decide on further
actions. The NHTSA student training manual states that the
driver interview provides the first definite indications that
the driver is under the influence (Sec. VI-2). Frequently, the
officer will ask the suspect at this point if he has been
drinking.
The NHTSA training manual
recommends that officers ask certain types of questions that
can serve as simple divided attention tests. These can be of
three types, specifically: (1) asking for two things
simultaneously such as a license and registration, (2) asking
interrupting or distracting questions, or (3) asking unusual
questions. (Sec. VI-4, -5) In the case of asking for two
things simultaneously, NHTSA training procedures instruct the
officer to be observant as a possible sign of intoxication if
a driver fails to produce both documents; produces other than
the requested documents; fails to see the documents while
searching in a wallet or purse; fumbles with or drops a
wallet, purse, or the requested documents; or is unable to
retrieve the documents using the fingertips.
With the second technique,
the officer might ask the driver to produce his license and
registration and while he is doing this ask him some unrelated
question such as the correct time. NHTSA training procedures
instruct the officer to be alert to a driver who ignores the
question and concentrates only on the initial task of
retrieving the documents, forgets to resume the document
search after answering the question, or supplies a grossly
incorrect answer to the question.
The third technique of
asking unusual questions is employed after the driver has
retrieved his license and registration. For example, while
holding the license the officer might ask the driver for his
middle name. The manual states that if he is not expecting to
have to process this information and is impaired, he may have
difficulty responding to the unusual question and answer what
would be a usual question he is prepared to answer, such as
his first name.
The final stage in this
phase, if it progresses further, is the vehicle exit sequence.
During this phase, the NHTSA training manual instructs the
officer to be alert for a driver who shows angry or "unusual"
reactions, cannot follow instructions, cannot open the door,
leaves the vehicle in gear, "climbs" out of the vehicle, leans
against the vehicle, or puts his hands on the vehicle for
balance § VI-6).
Phase III-Pre-arrest
Screening and Administration of Field Sobriety Tests
This final phase of
establishing a basis of probable cause for arrest involves
administration of the structured field sobriety tests. In some
jurisdictions that allow for them, this can also include
administration of a preliminary breath test.
As indicated earlier in
this report, NHTSA has developed and promotes the use of the
Standardized Field Sobriety Test battery consisting of the
Walk-and-Turn (WAT), One-Leg-Stand (OLS), and Horizontal Gaze
Nystagmus (HGN) tests. NHTSA recognizes only these tests in
its training protocols and does not endorse the use of any
other types of field sobriety tests and similarly validated.
It also makes it clear that the validity of the test battery
depends on strict adherence to the designated administration
and scoring principles it has developed. If they are followed
exactly, NHTSA asserts that the HGN test is 77% reliable in
identifying those with BACs of .10% or more, the WAT test is
68% accurate, and the OLS test is 65% accurate. The HGN test
combined with the WAT test is claimed to have 80% reliability.
If the procedures are not followed exactly, NHTSA states that
"the decision making guidelines will not be accurate."
Failure to pass any of the
three tests is determined by counting specific scoring clues
NHTSA specifies for each test. Presence of a predetermined
number of clues indicates failure to perform the test.
Each of the three tests in
the SFST battery is briefly described below, along with the
administrative steps that must be followed and the scoring
clues applicable to each test. The actual descriptions in the
NHTSA manual are considerable more extensive. In addition, the
standardized procedures for each test generally require that
the officer provide clear and specific directions and
demonstrate what the subject must do. Failure to do so
invalidates the test effectiveness. The tests must be
administered outside the vehicle in a well-lighted area
suitable for walking and standing and safe from traffic.
The Walk-and-Turn (WAT)
Test
The test has two distinct
parts. The first part (instruction phase) requires the subject
to balance heel-to-toe while the officer gives the
instructions and demonstrates the test. The second part of the
test requires the subject to take nine heel-to-toe steps on a
straight line, pivot around, and take nine heel-to-toe steps
back.
Test Conditions.
The required test
conditions are level ground, a hard, dry, non-slippery
surface, and conditions under which the suspect is in no
danger should he fall. The student training manual states that
the test criteria are not necessarily valid for people age 65
or older or people with leg injuries or inner ear disorders.
(Prior editions of the manual stated this limitation as
applicable to people more than 60 years of age, more than 50
pounds overweight, or with physical impairments that affect
balancing ability. The reason for the change does not appear
in the manual.) Suspects with heels more than two inches high
must be given the chance to remove their shoes. The WAT test
requires a line that the suspect can see and follow. If a
natural line is not present, the officer must draw one in the
dirt or on a sidewalk with chalk. Walking parallel to a curb
is not acceptable. The suspect must be able to see to perform
the test. His eyes must be open and adequate light available.
The manual states that if the officer can see the suspect
clearly the lighting is adequate, otherwise the officer must
use a flashlight to illuminate the line. A person who cannot
see out of one eye may have difficulty performing the test
because of poor depth perception. The suspect must watch his
feet because this makes the test more difficult for an
intoxicated person. The officer must observe the suspect
performing the test from three to four feet away and remain
motionless. Standing too close or moving while the test is
going on makes it more difficult even for a sober person to
perform the test.
Standardized Test
Procedures.
The WAT test must be administered as follows.
·
Instruct the subject to place the left foot on the line and
the right foot heel-to-toe in front of it (demonstrate).
·
Verify that the suspect understands that the stance must be
maintained while the instructions are given.
·
If the suspect breaks from the stance during the instructions,
stop the instructions until the stance is resumed.
·
Tell the suspect that he will be required to take nine
heel-to-toe steps down the line, turn around, and take nine
steps back down the line but not to begin until instructed.
·
Demonstrate two or three heel-to-toe steps and the turn.
·
Instruct the suspect to keep both arms at his sides, watch his
feet, count the steps out loud, and not to stop walking until
the test is completed.
·
Ask if the suspect understands the directions and, if not,
repeat whatever he does not understand but not the entire set
of directions.
·
Tell the suspect to begin and to count his first step from the
heel-to-toe position as one.
·
If the suspect staggers, steps off the line, or stops while
walking, allow him to resume from the point of interruption.
Do not have him repeat the test from the beginning. (The
manual states that the test loses its sensitivity if it is
repeated.)
Standardized Scoring
Clues. The WAT
test procedure has eight specific scoring clues the officer
must track. The clues must be scored if the suspect:
·
Loses balance during the instructions (his feet break from the
heel-to-toe stance)
·
Starts walking before the instructions are completed and he is
instructed to start.
·
Stops while walking to steady himself (but do not score this
clue if he is only walking slowly).
·
Leaves more than one-half inch between his feet during any
heel-to-toe step.
·
Steps off the line (if this occurs three times the test is
terminated and the officer must score it as if all eight clues
were shown).
·
Raises one or both arms more than six inches from his side to
maintain balance.
·
Turns improperly either by removing the front foot from the
line while turning, removes both feet from the line, or
clearly does not follow the directions as demonstrated.
·
Takes the wrong number of steps in either direction.
If the suspect cannot do
the test, the officer must score it as if all eight clues were
present.
If the suspect clearly
exhibits two or more of the eight clues or cannot complete the
test, the officer must classify his BAC as above .10%.
Officers are instructed to note in their report how many times
each clue appears, but count it only once for scoring
purposes.
The One-Leg-Stand (OLS)
Test
The OLS test requires a
suspect to stand with his arms at his side and raise and hold
one leg at least six inches off the ground for 30 seconds. He
must count the seconds out loud according to specific
instructions. The 30-second time period is important to the
test since NHTSA research indicates that it makes the test
sensitive to people in the .10% to .15% BAC range who might
otherwise pass the test if they only had to maintain the
position for less time. NHTSA research has shown that someone
with a BAC above .10% can maintain balance for up to 25
seconds but seldom for 30 seconds.
Test Conditions.
The conditions
required for the OLS test are like those for the WAT test.
There must be light adequate to provide a visual frame of
reference. The officer must observe motionless from three to
four feet away for the same reasons as for the WAT test. The
test criteria are not necessarily valid for people age 65 or
older, people 50 pounds or more overweight, or people with leg
injuries or inner ear disorders.
Standardized Test
Procedures.
The NHTSA specified test procedures for the OLS test are as
follows.
·
Instruct subject to stand with feet together and arms down at
sides (demonstrate).
·
Tell subject not to start until told.
·
Ask if subject understands instructions.
·
Explain to the subject that when told to start he must raise
one leg, either his left or right, approximately six inches
off the ground with the toe pointed out (demonstrate stance).
·
Tell the subject he must keep both legs straight with his arms
at his side and, while holding the position count out loud for
30 seconds saying "one thousand and one, one thousand and two,
etc." until told to stop (Demonstrate the counting method).
·
Remind the subject he must keep both arms at his sides at all
times throughout the test and keep watching his raised foot.
·
Ask if he understands and get a confirmation of his
understanding.
·
Tell him to begin the test.
·
Observe the subject from three feet away and remain "as
motionless as possible." If he puts his foot down, instruct
him to pick it up again and resume counting from the point it
touched the ground. If he counts very slowly, end the test
after 30 seconds. If he counts quickly, make him continue
until told to stop.
Standardized Scoring
Clues. The
test is scored according to four scoring clues. If the suspect
·
Swaying side-to-side or back-and-forth while maintaining the
one-leg stance
·
Moving arms six inches or more from the sides to maintain
balance
·
Hopping in order to maintain the one-leg stance
·
Putting his foot down one or more times during the 30 seconds.
If the suspect cannot do
the test or puts his foot down three or ore times, the officer
must record the results as if all four clues were scored
Horizontal Gaze
Nystagmus (HGN) Test
The HGN test is considered
the most accurate of the three tests and NHTSA suggests that
it be administered at a minimum if the suspect is unable to
perform the other two tests due to age, size, or physical
limitations. Some of the research on these tests suggests that
when it is consistently given first in the test sequence, the
reliance some police officers have on it might may have a
subtle influence on his expectations and scoring of the other
two tests (Anderson, Schweitz, and Snyder, Field Evaluation
of a Behavioral Test Battery for DWI, DOT-HS-806-475,
September 1983).
Nystagmus is involuntary
jerking of the eye. Research shows that there are more than 40
types of eye nystagmus. The HGN test is designed to measure
the type of nystagmus that occurs when the eyes gaze to the
side. HGN will occur in any person's eyes when gazing
extremely sideways, but NHTSA maintains that when a person is
intoxicated there are these signs that become apparent in his
eye movements: (1) the nystagmus occurs much sooner, that is,
the less the persons eyes have to move before the jerking
occurs; (2) if the person's eyes move as far to the side as
possible, the greater the alcohol impairment, the more
distinct the nystagmus will be at the extreme gaze position;
and (3) an intoxicated person cannot follow a slowly moving
object smoothly with his eyes. The HGN test is intended to
identify and measure these three signs.
The key element of
measuring HGN is correctly estimating when the eye has reached
a deviation angle of 45 degrees. NHTSA maintains that when
someone's BAC is above .10%, the jerking will begin before his
eye has moved 45 degrees to the side. Officers trained with
the NHTSA training procedure are provided a template for
practicing how to estimate the 45 degree angle but they are
not required to use a template when they administer the test
in the field.
Test Conditions.
The test requires the use of an object for the subject to
follow. The NHTSA training manual says that this can be a
fingertip, penlight, or pen. It must be held slightly above
eye level and 12-15 inches away from the person's nose. The
police officer must inquire and make note of whether or not
the suspect if he is wearing contact lenses, but the lenses do
not have to be removed for the test. However, a suspect
wearing glasses must be made to remove them.
Standardized Test
Procedure. The
officer must administer the test following these procedures.
·
The officer instructs the suspect that he is going to check
his eyes, that he must keep his head still and follow the
object only with his eyes, and that he must focus on the
object until told to stop.
·
The officer must hold the stimulus 12-15 inches from the
suspect's nose and slightly above eye level. He must move the
stimulus smoothly across the suspect's entire field of vision
and check to see if the eyes are tracking together or one lags
behind the other. (If the eyes do not track together, it could
be a sign of a medical disorder, injury, or blindness.)
·
The officer next must check to see that both pupils are the
same size (if not, it could be a sign of a head injury).
·
The officer starts with the left eye and smoothly moves the
stimulus to the right at a speed such that it takes about two
seconds to being the person's eye as far to the side as it can
go. He then moves the stimulus similarly to the left to check
the person's right eye.
·
Using this process, the officer must check for all three clues
in both eyes, always starting with the left. He must check at
least twice for each clue in each eye.
·
The officer must check for the clues in this sequence: lack of
smooth pursuit, nystagmus at maximum deviation, and onset of
nytagmus prior to 45 degrees.
·
When checking for nystagmus at maximum deviation, the officer
must move the stimulus to the side until no white is showing
at the side of the suspect's eye and hold the position for
four seconds.
·
When checking for nystagmus onset angle, the officer must move
the stimulus at a speed that would take about four seconds to
reach the edge of the suspect's shoulder. Watch the eye for
jerking and, when it occurs, stop and verify that is
continues.
·
The four-second speed of the stimulus movement is important.
If the object moves too fast, the officer could go past the
point of onset or miss it altogether.
·
If the suspect's eyes start to jerk before 45 degrees, the
officer must check to see that some white is still showing on
the side of the eye closest to the ear. If no white shows,
this means either that the officer has taken the eye too far
to the side (more than 45 degrees) or the person has unusual
eyes that do not deviate very far.
Standardized Clues.
There are
three scoring clues that are measured for each eye, giving a
maximum of six scoring points should all three clues be
present in both eyes. If four or more clues are observed, the
NHTSA manual states the person should be classified with a BAC
above .10%. The are the scoring clues.
·
Lack of smooth pursuit (the eyes bounce or jerk as they follow
the object)
·
Distinct nystagmus at maximum deviation when held for four
seconds. While some people exhibit jerking at maximum
deviation even when sober, in an intoxicated person the
jerking should be "very pronounced, and easily observable."
·
Onset of nystagmus before the eye has moved 45 degrees.
These are the only three
clues NHTSA recognizes as valid indicators of HGN. NHTSA
specifically does not support the position that the exact
onset angle can be used to estimate a person's specific BAC
and considers this to be a misuse of the HNG test.
Combined HGN and WAT
Test Scoring Matrix
NHTSA provides a special
scoring matrix for officers to use when combining the results
of the HGN and WAT tests. It notes that the HGN test requires
four clues for classification as above .10% BAC while the WAT
requires only two. The matrix can be used when the suspect
scores higher on one test and lower on the other. For example,
if the suspect scores three clues on the HGN test but only two
clues on the WAT test, the matrix indicates that he should be
classified as being above .10% BAC. But if he scores three
clues on the HGN test and only one on the WAT test, the matrix
shows that his BAC is probably below .10% BAC. The NHTSA
manual does not link the OLS test with any other test for
combined scoring purposes.
CASE LAW ESTABLISHING
ADMISSIBILITY OF FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS
State of Florida v.
Meador
We are providing
information on this 1996 case from Florida because it is
prominent in the literature on field sobriety testing as one
of the most significant recent cases addressing the issue of
how field sobriety tests are viewed in the courts. It is of
particular significance because two of the leading recognized
experts in the field with opposing points of view were called
to testify as expert witnesses. The state used Dr. Marcelline
Burns as its expert and the respondent used Dr. Spurgeon Cole
as its expert. Dr. Burns is the researcher from the Southern
California Research Institute who conducted the 1977 and 1981
NHTSA studies establishing and standardizing the SFST battery
and participated in numerous subsequent studies to support its
validity and accuracy. Dr. Cole is a clinical psychologist and
professor at Clemson University who has co-authored several
critical analytical reviews of field sobriety tests and the
research supporting them as noted in the discussion above. The
general interest in this case stems from the occasion for the
court to concurrently review the testimony of two of the most
recognized experts on field sobriety testing.
State v. Meador
(674 So.2d 826, 1996) involves an appeal by the state of a
county trial court's pretrial order excluding the evidence of
a field sobriety test battery that included the tests in the
NHTSA SFST battery and some other tests not in the
standardized battery. The Fourth District Court of Appeal
exercised it its discretionary jurisdiction to review the
issue to the "disparate approaches and conclusions" of county
court judges within the district with respect to admissibility
of the tests.
The case involved
challenges by two defendants arrested for driving under the
influence in different Florida towns. Both defendants had
challenged the admissibility of the field sobriety test
administered to them on the grounds that they lacked both
scientific reliability and probative value.
In State v. Meador,
the court noted that no Florida appellate court had yet ruled
directly on the admissibility of field sobriety test results,
but that in 1995 the Florida Supreme Court has ruled in
State v. Taylor that a pre-arrest request made to a
defendant to perform field sobriety tests after an
investigative stop upon reasonable suspicion of DUI was
reasonable (674 So. 2d 830).
In rendering its decision
the court separated the HGN test from the other tests
administered to test psychomotor functions. (The psychomotor
tests administered to the defendants included the
walk-and-turn, one-leg-stand, Romberg balance, and
finger-to-nose tests. The court determined that testimony
concerning performance on psychomotor field sobriety tests is
sufficiently reliable as lay observations of intoxication to
be relevant in proving impairment and the danger that they be
unfairly prejudicial did not substantially outweigh their
probative value so as to require exclusion as evidence. It
considered them admissible as lay observations of the police
officer with the proviso that characterization of the test
results by witnesses be restricted so as to not elevate the
significance of the test result evidence above other lay
observations of intoxication. Specifically, the court
cautioned that caution should be exercised to restrict use of
terms such as "test," "pass," "fail," or "points" when
referring to the results.
The court viewed the HGN
test in a different light. It determined that HGN test results
should not be admitted as lay observations of intoxication
because HGN testing constitutes scientific evidence. Thus,
although the evidence may be relevant, the court felt that the
danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of issues, or misleading
the jury requires exclusion of the HGN test evidence unless
the "traditional predicates of scientific evidence are
satisfied." (Meador, p. 836).
Connecticut Case
Decisions
State v. Lamme (216
Conn. 172, August 1990)
The defendant in this case
challenged the admissibility of the results of two field
sobriety tests administered to him after he was stopped for
driving without lighted headlights at night. Previous to being
stopped by the police officer, the defendant had been
interviewed by a different police officer called by hotel
management to the hotel where the defendant had consumed
several drinks and fallen asleep in the lobby. The officer
noticed the odor of alcohol on the defendant and when the
defendant rejected an offer for arrangement of a ride home and
said he would wait in his car for a friend to drive him home.
When he observed the defendant walk to his car unsteadily, the
officer radioed headquarters with a description of the
defendant and his car. The second officer who subsequently
stopped the individual heard the broadcast and drove to the
vicinity of the hotel where he saw the defendant driving a car
matching the description without the headlight illuminated.
The officer administered
two field sobriety tests to the defendant-a walk-and-turn test
and a finger-to-nose test. While the case decision provides no
further description of the content of the tests, it is clear
that it did not constitute the SFST battery. The decision
states that "the defendant's failure to pass these tests was
the basis for his arrest for driving while under the influence
of intoxicating liquor." (p. 177)
Both the trial court and
the Appellate Court had concluded earlier that the defendant
was not entitled to suppress the evidence of the two field
sobriety tests. The courts agreed that the police had legally
stopped him initially for driving without headlights and,
subsequently, the odor of alcohol on his breath provided a
"reasonable and articulable suspicion" that he might be
involved in criminal activity and justified further detention
for the "limited intrusion" represented by the field sobriety
tests at the place where he was being detained. The Supreme
Court agreed that this constituted a valid stop under the
requirements of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Terry
v. Ohio (392 U.S. 1, 20-22, 88S. Ct. 1868).
In his appeal to the
Supreme Court, the defendant asserted that article first, §
nine of the Connecticut Constitution forbids the police to
detain anyone, even on reasonable and articulable suspicion,
unless and until the police have probable cause to make an
arrest. This argument would require the court to rule the
field sobriety test results inadmissible since the police had
conceded that they did not have probable cause to arrest him
until after administering the field sobriety tests.
The Supreme Court rejected
this argument and concluded that "the principles of
fundamental fairness that are the hallmark of due process
permit brief investigatory detention, even in the absence of
probable cause, if the police have a reasonable and
articulable suspicion that a person has committed or is about
to commit a crime." (p.184). Thus the court concluded that the
principles underlying constitutionally permissible stops
enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Terry
decision and subsequent relevant cases define when detentions
are "clearly warranted by law" under article first, § nine of
the state constitution.
State v. Merritt (36
Conn. App. 76)
This decision appears to
be the first instance a Connecticut appellate court addressed
the issue of whether the HGN test and its results are the type
of scientific evidence requiring a special foundation for
admission. The defendant was initially stopped by police after
failing to stop for a stop sign and almost colliding with the
car of the arresting officer. The officer suspected the
defendant to be intoxicated based on his observation that the
defendant's breath smelled of alcohol, his eyes were
bloodshot, his clothes disheveled, he swayed back and forth,
and he spoke slowly. The police officer conducted three field
sobriety tests-alphabet recitation, a ten-step walk-and-turn
test, and a one-leg-stand test. Although it is not clear from
the case decision if the one-leg-stand test was performed in
accordance with the procedures outlined in the SFST battery,
the other two tests clearly were not part of the battery.
After concluding that the
defendant had failed all three of the psychomotor tests, the
police officer performed the HGN test in which he made "three
separate observations" of the reactions of each of his eyes.
On the basis of all his observations, including those from the
HGN test, he took the defendant into custody, but, for several
reasons, an evidentiary breath test could not be administered.
At trial, the defendant
apparently objected to the admissibility of the results of the
HGN test, but not to the admissibility of the other field
sobriety tests that were administered. On appeal to the
appellate court, the defendant challenged the admissibility of
the HGN test results as constituting scientific evidence
requiring foundation according to the Frye test of
general acceptability within the scientific community. The
appellate court noted that no similar court had yet ruled on
whether the HGN test constituted scientific evidence requiring
special foundation for admission.
After reviewing the
plethora of cases on this subject from other jurisdictions,
the court determined that the HGN test constituted such
scientific evidence and since the state had not laid the
foundation for evidence pursuant to the Frye standard,
it ruled that the trial court has exceeded its discretion by
admitting the HGN test results. However, the court also found
that this constituted harmless error and upheld the lower
court's conviction based on the conclusion that the jury's
perceptions of all of the other evidence, including the
defendant's admission of consumption of four drinks, his
failure to pass the three other field sobriety tests, and his
appearance and demeanor, was not so affected by the improperly
admitted testimony on the HGN test that the likely trial
result would have been different without the HGN testimony.
State v. Carlson
(702 A. 2d 886, 45 Conn. Sup. 461 (1998))
This case further
established the specific basis for accepting the HGN test as
valid scientific evidence. The court ruled that for purposes
of determining if the HGN test had gained general acceptance
in the particular field in which it belonged (the essence of
the Frye test for acceptability), the relevant
scientific communities included optometry, neurology,
behavioral psychology, highway safety, and forensic science.
The court further found that the test was admissibility as
scientific evidence since it was generally accepted in these
relevant scientific communities as a reliable indicator of
alcohol impairment, it had been the subject of extensive field
and laboratory testing and scholarly reivew, national
standards existed to guide police officers in executing the
test, and it was sufficiently straightforward that a fact
finder could reasonably and realistically draw its own
conclusions from it. However, the court also reinforced the
position that the fact that the HGN test satisfied the
standards for admissibility as scientific evidence did not
obviate the necessity of laying a proper foundation with a
showing that the officer administering the test had the
necessary qualifications and followed the appropriate
procedures.
State v. Gracia (719
A. 2d 1196, 51 Conn. App. 4 (November 1998))
This case considered
several points of law relative to drunk driving issues, but it
appears significant with respect the issue of field sobriety
test in that it appears to be the first Supreme Court decision
specifically to rule on the admissibility of field sobriety
tests other than the HGN test as scientific evidence The facts
of the case involved a situation where a passing motorist
encountered the defendant's vehicle in the left traffic lane
of a local street with the engine running, the lights on, the
right turn signal flashing, and the radio playing. He observed
the defendant asleep in the vehicle and tried to waken him.
When he could not do so, he left to call the police and, when
he returned, observed the vehicle and defendant in the same
positions as when he left. He made other observations
consistent with the idea that the vehicle was running and in
gear with the defendant asleep behind the wheel.
When a police officer
arrived, he attempted to waken the sleeping defendant for
approximately five minutes before succeeding. The police
officer testified that the defendant's eyes appeared glassy
and bloodshot and that he detected the odor of alcohol.
Following several other interactions, the officer asked the
defendant to exit the vehicle and, following several
additional observations relating to the defendant's condition
and demeanor, the officer administered two field sobriety
tests, which the decision identified as the one-leg-stand and
the walk-and-turn tests.
The defendant raised a
number of issues on appeal, one of which was that the
judiciary was precluded from exercising jurisdiction in this
case because the trial court's suspension of his license
violated the separation of powers provision of the Connecticut
Constitution. Among the issues raised was that the trial court
improperly admitted evidence concerning the field sobriety
test he was given in that these tests constitute scientific
evidence requiring expert testimony prior to admission.
Before addressing this
issue, the court noted that the defendant's claim that
Miranda warnings were required before admisintration of
field sobriety tests was unfounded because the U.S. Supreme
Court had ruled in Pennsylvania v. Bruder (488 U.S. 9,
109 S. Ct. 205) that questioning at the scene and conducting
field sobriety tests does not involve custody for Miranda
purposes. The court further noted that its previous ruling in
the Lamme case considered such testing "incident to the
initial stop, based on the officer's reasonable suspicion,
rather than on the subsequent arrest."
The court rejected the
argument. It ruled that the Frye test for admissibility
of scientific evidence did not apply to the field sobriety
test administered in this case. It found that the two
administered tests assessed the defendant's balance,
coordination, and ability to follow directions and that they
were neither highly technical nor required special skills or
knowledge in order to be understood. The court referred to its
previous decision in Merritt in which it noted that
these types of tests, unlike the HGN test, were within the
common knowledge of lay jurors. It also noted that the trial
court instructed the jury that the tests were not scientific
evidence and that it should consider the observations made
during the tests and use its common experience in determining
whether the defendant was intoxicated.
State v. Porter (241
Conn. 57, 698 A. 2d. 739 (1997))
While not specific to
field sobriety tests, this decision adopted a new standard
with respect to the basis for admitting scientific evidence.
It replaced the Frye standard of general acceptance
within the relevant scientific community with the standard
elucidated in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1993 decision in
Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals. Instead of
"general acceptance" within the relevant community, the new
federal standard established in Daubert requires only
that the reasoning or methodology underlying the scientific
theory or technique is scientifically valid and can properly
be applied to the facts at issue. "In other words,' the court
stated, "before it can be admitted, the trial judge must find
that the proffered evidence is both reliable and relevant.'" (Porter
p. 64)
In Daubert, the
court listed four nonexclusive factors for federal judges to
consider in determining whether a particular theory or
technique is based on scientific knowledge: (1) whether it can
be, or has been, tested; (2) whether it has been subjected to
peer review and publication; (3) the known or potential rate
of error, including the existence and maintenance of standards
controlling its operation; and (4) whether it is, in fact,
generally accepted in the relevant scientific community.
However, the court also noted that the process was a
"flexible" one and that other factors may have merit to the
extent that they focus on the reliability of evidence as
ensured by the scientific validity of its underlying
principles.
In adopting the Daubert
criteria as a replacement for the Frye standard, the
court further acknowledged the U.S. Supreme Court's
recognition that even if a scientific theory or technique
satisfied both the reliability and relevance criteria of
Daubert, it could still be excluded under federal
evidentiary rules if its probative value was substantially
outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of
issues, or misleading the jury.
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