How Important Is a Police Officer’s Testimony in a DUI Case?

By Robert Arentz | Published on September 7, 2011 | 0 Comments

A police officer’s testimony can be extremely persuasive in a DUI case, which is why people who are wrongly accused of driving under the influence should do everything they can to defend themselves from these types of charges.

According to Phoenix DUI lawyer Robert Arentz of Robert Arentz and Associates, most people who are convicted of DUIs are found guilty based on a single police officer’s subjective testimony. Arentz goes on to explain that the majority of the field sobriety tests that officers give to determine whether drivers are intoxicated are completely subjective.

With the exception of the blood and breath tests, almost all other field sobriety tests are subjective. A police officer pulls over a person because he subjectively felt that the person was driving poorly, and then he administers these tests and forms an opinion on whether a driver is being affected by alcohol or not. The most common field sobriety tests – which include the walk and turn and the HGN (Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus) test – involve officers giving descriptions of what they believe they saw a driver do.

A police officer may believe that he saw a person swaying during a field sobriety test, or he may think that a person’s eyes looked bloodshot or that the person was slurring his words. However, all of these are opinions that are based on whatever the officer does or does not think. On the other hand, the Phoenix DUI lawyer says that blood and breath tests are a type of scientific evidence that uses objective standards to measure how much alcohol a person has in his system.

As a DUI lawyer in Phoenix, Arentz has to question the motivation of a police officer or the officer’s ability to form valid opinions that are not based on scientific evidence. Although opinion evidence is usually easier to overcome in court than scientific evidence, Arentz says that defendants still have their work cut out for them when it comes to casting down over the opinion of a law enforcement professional.

Nonetheless, attorneys like Arentz have been trained to recognize the potential mistakes that police officers make. In addition to being able to recognize these mistakes, a DUI lawyer in Phoenix has to be able to show that an officer was incorrect in his opinions, either due to error, misjudgment, or something else entirely. If he can do this successfully, then an attorney has done his job and he has most likely succeeded in securing a positive outcome for his client in the case.

*Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.

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