Steps to Take When Pulled Over for DUI

When you see flashing red and blue lights in your rearview mirror, it can be a stressful experience. If a law enforcement officer pulls you over and suspects you may be driving while intoxicated, your next actions dictate the trajectory of the DUI investigation or prosecution. From the second the squad car indicates you should stop, you are closely watched. This is an important interaction that requires a calm approach and an understanding of your constitutional rights.

Your words and actions at these pivotal moments could help keep you from being incriminated or from giving the prosecution exactly what they are looking for to convict you. The specifics of the protocols help to calm you down, protect your legal rights, and allow your defense attorney to be more effective in your defense. Understanding the process can help you remain calm and protect your legal rights.

Pull Over to a Safe Spot

Your interaction with the police begins before the officers arrive at your car. As soon as the flashing lights start to show up on your rearview mirror, the officer will continue observing your behavior during the stop. If you abruptly halt, swerve, or fail to use your turn signal, it raises suspicion right away and may provide additional evidence for the prosecution. Pausing for a police vehicle involves purposeful, controlled behavior that must show control and compliance. Signal your intent immediately, slow down slowly, and move safely to the right shoulder or another safe, well-lit location.

By following safe traffic stop procedures, there is less tension, and everyone is safe. When you completely stop, concentrate only on setting up the cabin. Once safely stopped, turn off the engine and follow the officer's instructions. If the stop occurs at night, turn on your interior dome light to give the officer a good view of the inside of the vehicle. Lower your driver's window enough to communicate with the officer and pass documents. These actions demonstrate transparency, alleviate the officer's safety concerns, and create an organized environment.

Knowing what to do when police pull you over centers heavily on your physical movement. Keep your hands visible on the steering wheel and do not make any movement. Moving suddenly or quietly in a dark car may appear to be a movement towards a weapon or hiding contraband.

Do not request the officer's license and registration before their request. When drivers reach into the glove compartment or center console too soon, this sends their own red flag. Do not touch these items until the officer specifically asks for them. Then verbally identify them before you touch them. This is a controlled process, which keeps you safe and prevents the officer from claiming that you exhibited suspicious or nervous actions during the first moments of a stop.

Exercise Your Right to Remain Silent

The next few minutes after the first stop are a pivotal legal juncture. Law enforcement officers often ask questions designed to elicit incriminating evidence against a defendant, often presented as a casual conversation. Standard opening questions like “Do you know why I stopped you?” or “How much have you had to drink tonight?” are set-ups for legal purposes. Your answers may later be used as evidence in court.

Unfortunately, many drivers think they can get away with excuses, minimize their drinking, or make themselves look good to avoid arrest in a DUI case. What actually happens during roadside questioning is often used to gather evidence of impairment and to record slurred speech. To safeguard your rights, you need to know just what to tell police officers when you are pulled over.

It is important to be thoughtful about what information you choose to provide. You have a constitutional right to refuse to incriminate yourself. If you invoke your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to remain silent during a traffic stop, the legal effect of remaining silent can depend on the circumstances and should be discussed with an attorney. If the police ask you if you have been drinking, you do not have to admit or give the police any information about your evening.

The best defense is assertiveness. You should remain silent during a DUI investigation. This decision must be communicated very clearly and directly. Set limits with clearly worded, legally correct scripts, rather than stuttering or making up stories. State clearly, “I am invoking my right to remain silent.”

If the officer continues to ask about your destination or whether you were drinking alcohol, just state that you respectfully choose not to answer questions without an attorney present.

Maintaining a respectful and calm demeanor is important. The exercise of constitutional rights should be handled professionally and calmly. Avoid arguing, yelling, or becoming aggressive with the officer. Law enforcement officers will note your aggressive behavior and consider it a sign of intoxication or erratic behavior. This approach will keep you from giving the prosecution the oral evidence they need while maintaining your dignity and legal rights.

Refuse the Field Sobriety Tests (FSTs)

One of the most misinterpreted parts of an investigation into a driving-while-intoxicated case is the roadside physical evaluation. Most drivers believe that field sobriety tests are mandatory or that doing them well will assuage the officer's suspicions that they are being frivolous. In fact, these coordination exercises are subjective processes police use to obtain physical evidence to justify an arrest under California Vehicle Code sections.

For most adult drivers, field sobriety tests are generally voluntary, although specific circumstances may vary. California's implied-consent laws generally apply to chemical testing after a lawful DUI arrest rather than roadside field sobriety tests. Often, officers do not explain the volunteer status to the driver, instead making the exercises seem like requirements and an expected part of the stop.

The problem with roadside physical testing is its design. Field sobriety tests are subject to interpretation and may be affected by various physical or environmental factors. The CHP and local police officers watch your eye movements during the horizontal gaze nystagmus test for any involuntary eye movements or jerky movements. However, it can be caused by a normal medical condition, fatigue, or flashing police lights.

On the other hand, the walk-and-turn test and the one-leg stand test also assess divided attention and physical balance. A perfectly sober person can fail because of weather, inadequate roadside gravel, darkness, nervousness, anxiety, poor footwear, or just plain physical limitations. You have to be careful to avoid having your minor stumble or misstep recorded as proof of impairment.

Drivers should understand that field sobriety tests may be used as evidence in a DUI investigation to support a legal defense. Once you have tried fighting FST, you will know how expensive it will be to get your name cleared in a courtroom because the prosecution is going to point out every imbalance and use it as evidence of intoxication. Avoid providing the state with this flawed visual evidence.

When an officer directs you to step out of the vehicle to perform coordination drills, you have the right not to do it on the spot. Be assertive and firm in your approach. Assert that you politely decline to perform any physical tests.

Declining these physical challenges stops the officer from collecting subjective data against you. Keep your cool, stand quietly, and do not give lengthy explanations on how you are or your medical condition. Just say "no" and let the officer use other indicators, not a set of physical assessments designed to secure your arrest.

Refuses the Preliminary Alcohol Screening (PAS) Test

It is important to know the different stages of the chemical test so that you know what to expect when traffic officers stop you. Some drivers are confused when an officer carries a handheld breathalyzer in their vehicle at the side of the road. It is important to understand the difference between the preliminary alcohol screening test and the required chemical test after an arrest to prevent the violation of your rights. The roadside PAS test is just a step in the field sobriety test procedure. It is a tool that law enforcement has used to determine probable cause for a DUI arrest.

The law regarding chemical testing depends on whether you are an arrestee or not, as specified in California Vehicle Code Section 23612. Under VC 23612, most drivers aged 21 or older who are not on DUI probation may decline a roadside PAS test unless they are still on DUI probation. You have the legal right to refuse this preliminary screening, without the repercussions of an automatic penalty, until you are under arrest.

Certain exceptions in the statute treat roadside refusals as administrative matters. Those under 21 or those who have been probationary for a previous driver's license suspension have no right to refuse. A refusal in these specific scenarios triggers an immediate administrative license suspension by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The risk of signing up for the handheld breathalyzer test is too great for standard drivers (those over 21). Portable breath-testing devices have limitations and may not be as controlled as evidentiary testing instruments. They are not calibrated as carefully as station-house machines. If you agree to the test, the officer gets a number right away that they can use to justify arresting you. If you have met the legal requirements for refusal, protect your defense by being courteous and refusing the device. Be polite and firmly refuse to submit to the preliminary roadside breath test.

An officer may still arrest you based on other evidence of impairment.

Exercise Your Rights Regarding The Station Breath Or Blood Test

However, the law surrounding a traffic stop alters when an officer formally arrests you and takes you to the police station. However, voluntary compliance is crucial on the roadside, and crossing the threshold into a law enforcement facility marks a significant shift from investigative screening to chemical testing. You no longer have the option of refusing testing without being subject to severe legal and administrative consequences.

The basis of this transition is called implied consent. California Vehicle Code Section 23612 requires drivers lawfully arrested for DUI to submit to a chemical test. This is a legal duty that will be in effect from the moment something has been legally arrested.

In California, you typically have the option to go for a DUI blood test or breath test. The station's breath test uses a stationary, desktop infrared spectrometer and provides immediate results. However, it does not save a sample for a third-party retest. Alternatively, a blood draw requires a qualified medical professional to extract a sample, which your defense attorney can later split and analyze for calibration errors or contamination. Standard station breathalyzers cannot detect controlled substances, so if law enforcement suspects you are impaired or drug-affected, you will be mandated to be tested by a blood test.

If you refuse the breathalyzer test at the police station, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) immediately imposes a severe suspension under the administrative per se suspension procedure. A refusal can trigger significant DMV consequences, including a lengthy license suspension to take the required DUI testing.

A refusal suspension is considered a "hard" suspension, and you will not be eligible to obtain a restricted driver's license to get to work, school, or court-ordered programs. Moreover, the prosecution is allowed to argue your refusal as direct evidence of a “consciousness of guilt” in court. A refusal may result in enhanced penalties if it leads to a conviction in your case.

Refusing the station test also fails to prevent the state from obtaining your chemical data. Officers may seek a warrant authorizing a blood draw if a driver refuses chemical testing or if you will not submit to a breath or blood test. Lawful consent is required for a compulsory blood draw, meaning a court-authorized blood draw may be performed in accordance with applicable legal standards. When you know the stations have to be tested, you can make informed decisions, choose the testing method best suited to your defense, and prevent creating more legal problems for yourself with a high-priced refusal enhancement.

Call Your Attorney Immediately

When you are arrested for DUI, the attorney you hire to represent you is your last line of defense against prosecution. Even after an arrest, your decisions may affect the evidence available in your case. You know who to turn to for legal assistance and what your rights are, so you do not make critical mistakes in processing.

One point of confusion is Miranda rights in a DUI investigation. Many motorists believe that if a police officer does not inform them of their rights when they are arrested, the case will be dismissed. Actually, police only need to read Miranda warnings during custodial interrogation. Simple administrative issues regarding your name, address, and physical data do not require warnings.

Furthermore, there is a specific procedural exception to your right to an attorney when it comes to taking a post-arrest breath or blood test in California. You have no right to consult with an attorney before deciding to take a post-arrest breath or blood test, or to delay the test to wait for an attorney. If you try to condition your chemical sample on the basis of your conversation with a lawyer first, it will be reported as a structural refusal, and an automatic (one-year) administrative license suspension will be issued.

After the chemical testing, your right to counsel becomes your absolute priority. As soon as the custodial interrogation starts or when you are no longer being tested, firmly invoke your constitutional rights. State your request clearly and precisely as you seek to talk to a lawyer, and you are opting to keep your mouth closed until you have a lawyer with you.

Legally, this right means that once the right is exercised, law enforcement must stop questioning you about your driving, any alcohol use, and your history of events. If investigators continue to ask questions after you have clearly requested a lawyer, those statements become inadmissible, providing your defense team with powerful leverage to suppress the evidence.

Once the formal invocation is complete, you will move on to the booking process at the detention facility. Penal Code Section 851.5 guarantees you a minimum of three completed local telephone calls without charge within three hours of your arrest. To call a lawyer from jail, you need a strategy to manage your calls.

Your top priority is to contact a DUI attorney. You want to reach out to an experienced DUI attorney immediately to get your legal strategy and protect your rights while you are detained. If you do not have a firm to contact directly, consider using the remaining calls to contact an attorney, a trusted family member, or someone you trust. This can help them start bailing you out of jail and get you out sooner while reducing the time you spend there. Secure your freedom first, then let your legal counsel dissect the state's case from a position of strength.

Find a DUI Attorney Near Me

The key to passing a California DUI stop is to be polite and assertive. When you pull over safely and take control of the conversation, you are refusing the subjective evidence that law enforcement wants to use to convict you. When you refuse to submit to voluntary roadside testing, you deny law enforcement the subjective evidence they seek. Your actions at the arrest scene are crucial to a successful legal challenge, even though post-arrest testing remains mandatory.

Do not take chances when it comes to your driving privileges and freedom following a DUI arrest. Call the Koenig Law Office today at 661-793-7222, and we will review your case, uncover weaknesses in Bakersfield police procedures, and create an aggressive defense that will ensure your future.