An attorney certainly can pick up a field sobriety testing manual, and read through it. However, the best type of training is to go through a student course that is equivalent to the courses the police officers take for their DWI detection and standardized field sobriety testing. Those courses are generally taught by current or former police officers who have a number of years of experience in DWI detection. They pass on their knowledge and experience concerning DWI detection and standardized field sobriety training. Additionally, in this student course, they bring in live participants for the standardized field sobriety tests. Some have consumed alcohol, some haven’t. They go through the administration of these tests in a mock scenario that is trying to approximate what the police officers do during their roadside investigations. The students are held to the same standards that police officers will be held to.
At the end of the testing, the students give determinations concerning whether you that person was intoxicated and whether an arrest should take place. As an attorney, you gain a tremendous amount of information that could be used in court when you put yourself in the shoes of a police officer who has to go through this type of investigation. You learn much more doing it, rather than just reading about it.
These student training programs additionally include watching videos, attending lectures, reading the manual, and taking a final written examination. All of this is invaluable.
Attorneys can take it one step further by attending a DWI detection and standardized field sobriety testing instructor course. Training can be giving through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That’s an intensive training course which occurs over three days and uses live participants as well. Attorneys have to give presentations concerning the materials to a supervising instructor who was a former police officer. As a DWI field sobriety testing expert, they then receive a certification at the end of the training course.
There is also the other side of these cases, which addresses the breath testing. As an attorney, you have to understand the science behind breath testing and understand the technology used to administer breath tests. There is no national requirement that each state uses a specific breath test device. The states are free to use whichever they see fit. In some states, one police department may use a different breath test device than the department in the neighboring town. In New Jersey, all police personnel now use one particular device called the Alcotest 7110. That device was made by a company called Dräeger, and the device is actually being phased out in New Jersey – eventually to be replaced with newer technology. In the meantime, an attorney needs to know how the device is appropriately operated and any of the physical or medical issues that an individual may have that can affect the outcome of that breath test device.
Additionally the attorney needs to know how to access a database with all the uploaded raw data from the Alcotest device. The upload is done on a weekly basis. The attorney should know how to sift through this information online and interpret it in order to see if there is an appropriate defense.