Alcohol odor is a characteristic of nearly all DUI police reports, providing enough cause to detain an individual for further DUI investigations. When combined with observations such as flushed cheeks or watery eyes, its presence provides enough probable cause to justify detention for further DUI examinations.
Your lawyer will argue that an overwhelming scent of alcohol is no evidence of impairment and could actually mislead authorities into believing you’re drunk.
The Odor of Alcohol
Alcohol odor can be used as a powerful argument in support of DUI charges, often by police officers during traffic stops where they ask drivers to step out for field sobriety tests and other investigative exercises.
Unfortunately, odor of alcohol doesn’t correspond with blood alcohol levels directly. Instead, its smell comes from chemicals known as congeners that form during fermentation process, and which can be detected using gas chromatography – an industry standard test used in DUI investigations.
An odor of alcohol simply indicates that someone has consumed alcohol recently; not necessarily how much. Most officers will admit it is impossible to estimate an individual’s alcohol intake solely based on breath odor alone.
This discrepancy is crucial because it shows that simply smelling alcohol cannot provide any information about a person’s actual blood alcohol level, so chemical analysis must be used as proof that someone was driving under the influence.
The Smell of Alcohol on the Breath
DUI arrests often hinge on police claims of smelling alcohol and subjective observations like bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, among others. While such evidence doesn’t always establish intoxication, it can be challenged with objective proof such as body camera footage or results from breath tests or HGNs.
Opinions on an odor of alcohol can be highly subjective and could be affected by your choice of mouthwash, breath mints, gum, weather conditions and time of day. Your defense attorney could challenge these allegations by showing how these factors do not make anyone any more or less intoxicated than anyone else.
An officer cannot use your scent of alcohol as a barometer of blood alcohol concentration; one beer can produce exactly the same odor as someone exceeding legal limits by more than twice that amount (0.08%).
An alcohol smell could simply indicate you consumed alcohol recently – something legal for adults to do – however this alone doesn’t constitute probable cause to initiate a DUI investigation or begin field sobriety tests; an officer requires more substantial evidence, such as having an open container of alcohol in your car, before starting an investigation into DUI charges.
The Smell of Alcohol on the Eyes
Police officers use the smell of alcohol as one factor to establish probable cause to initiate DUI investigations, yet simply smelling alcohol doesn’t necessarily equate with drunkenness – in fact it is possible for someone with an strong odor of alcohol without an elevated Blood Alcohol Content (BAC).
As alcohol’s smell can also be produced by other substances, including coffee and hand sanitizer, it should be remembered that its scent only remains for 12 to 24 hours after ingestion – far too short a time period to provide evidence of drunk driving given other considerations, such as slurred speech and bloodshot eyes.
A 1999 study evaluated 20 police officers’ abilities to detect the smell of alcohol on individuals. Officers were asked to estimate their subject’s BAC level from the strength of odor on their breath; however, estimates did not correlate with actual levels but instead served only as random guesses.
If the police officer cites alcohol odor as part of his or her probable cause for your DUI arrest, it is crucial that your legal defense challenge this allegation. An experienced defense lawyer can highlight its unreliability during trial and help win your case by countering this piece of evidence; additionally, strong opposition may help undermine an officer’s credibility throughout.
The Smell of Alcohol on the Skin
Police officers frequently cite alcohol smell as evidence during DUI investigations, though this shouldn’t be seen as sole evidence. Officers must also look out for signs such as slurred speech or bloodshot eyes that indicate intoxication during their investigations.
At a traffic stop, if an officer detects alcohol-induced scent, he or she will question and conduct field sobriety tests to assess if a driver is impaired by alcohol consumption. If they suspect they have enough of a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level to violate law, an arrest will take place.
Recent studies conducted to test how reliable police officer’s ability to smell alcohol odor as evidence of intoxication is. Unfortunately, results did not correlate with actual alcohol consumption levels or blood alcohol content levels of individuals involved in the research study.
An experienced OWI/DUI defense attorney can use the results of this study to fight back against the state’s allegations against you. A criminal attorney could use evidence such as breath odor to demonstrate that it doesn’t necessarily indicate intoxication and could instead be related to other factors like gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). This point is especially significant, as simply smelling alcohol doesn’t provide sufficient probable cause for police officers to initiate a DUI investigation.
