The Marc Lopez Law Firm deals with Indiana DUI cases every day. Most Indiana DUI arrests result from one of three scenarios: a traffic violation, an accident investigation or a sobriety checkpoint. Depending on the specifics, each of these situations has factors that need to be taken into account.
Traffic Violation
Under Indiana law, a police officer can pull you over if he “believes in good faith” that you’ve “committed an infraction or ordinance violation.” While this may sound like a meaningful standard, the investigating officer doesn’t actually need to hold this belief in good faith—he just needs to assert it.
Following the United States Supreme Court, the Indiana Court of Appeals has confirmed that a police officer’s subjective motives are irrelevant. A stop will be considered valid if there’s a justifiable reason for it. So the statute says the officer needs to believe something, but the case law says beliefs don’t matter. Pretty straightforward, right?
On top of that, the officer’s “belief” about your conduct doesn’t need to be accurate, and he doesn’t even have to tell you why he’s stopped you. The only requirement is that if an officer does make a stop for a traffic violation, he must do so in full uniform or in a fully-marked police vehicle.
Officers are trained to spot clues. When performing a traffic stop, they can absolutely use their observations as evidence of your intoxication. Police look at things like:
- the amount of time it takes you to stop your vehicle;
- how smoothly you maneuver to the side of the road; and
- whether you make it safely to the shoulder.
No single factor definitively points to intoxication, but each one might be a piece of the puzzle. Many experienced officers will admit that people have a tendency to do odd things when they see flashing lights and panic. In spite of this, many officers make little effort to distinguish between signs of anxiety and preliminary signs of intoxication.
Click here to read more about the most likely scenarios for Indiana DUI charges.