CRYING WOLF: Standard Field Sobriety Tests

What do SFSTs mean? How do they assist the officer? As DUI Practitioners, we know how little they demonstrate sobriety. As a DUI Defense attorneys, we know the unfortunate weight given to these tests by judges and jurors. However, as Dr. Greg Kane notes, “The science proves SFSTs do not work.” Dr. Kane evaluated the Sand Diego study date in, Crying Wolf, What never before published data proves about Standardized Field Sobriety Tests, in Trial Talk, August/September 2008, issue p. 35:

The review demonstrated what we already knew, or suspected. As Dr. Kane says, “When drivers are impaired, the SFST cries ‘impaired.’ When drivers are not impaired, the SFST still cries ‘impaired'”. So no matter how you perform, you will be “impaired”.

The next time you need to show the SFST’s mean nothing, especially for a motion to suppress, look at Dr. Kane’s article and the statistical analysis of the data. The results on SFSTs mean nothing, and maybe that’s what your judge needs to sustain your motion to suppress.