In many cases, an arresting officer will have already made their judgment of decision or arrest preceding a request to perform a field sobriety test.
Field Sobriety Tests:
- Finger-to-nose
- Horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN)
- Heel-to-toe walk
- Reciting of the alphabet
- Hand pat
- Fingers-to-thumb
- One-leg-stand
- Modified position of attention (the Rhomberg test)
If a field test is failed, the officer will likely make the arrest using this failure as evidence.
After a recent study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), only three reliable tests are considered valid in determining if a driver is intoxicated:
- Heel-to-toe
- One-leg-stand
- The horizontal gaze nystagmus test.
The NHTSA study also concluded that all other Field Sobriety Tests are unreliable and should be discourage from being used.