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This Raleigh/Durham/Cary DUI/DWI attorney would like to address a common misconception regarding roadside DUI/DWI sobriety tests. It’s a common visual image: an officer moving a pen back in forth in front of a motorist face. But what is the officer actually testing?

If you are like most people, you may have assumed that the officer is testing to see whether or not the suspect is able to follow the stimulus (usually a pen, the officer’s finger, or a small flashlight) without moving his or her head – but that’s not the case at all.

The officer is actually trying to detect an involuntary jerking of the eyes, known as nystagmus. This test is used by law enforcement officers throughout North Carolina and the Raleigh/Durham/Cary area. According to medical experts, most (if not all) people’s eyes will exhibit some form of involuntary jerking (nystagmus) as the gaze is cast to the extreme left and right (while keeping the head still). If a person is intoxicated, however, the nystagmus will occur at an earlier angle (i.e. – before the eye moves all the way to the left or right). Incredibly, one thing the officer is trying to determine is the angle at which the nystagmus begins. According to most police handbooks and training manuals, if the nystagmus occurs when the pupil is focused at a 45% angle or earlier, the suspect is possibly intoxicated.

The second part of the test is to determine whether the nystagmus becomes increasingly distinct and noticeable as the pupil moves all the way to the extreme left and right. If the nystagmus becomes more and more noticeable as the pupils move, the suspect may be intoxicated.

Finally, for the third part of the test, the officer is supposed to note whether the suspect is able to follow the stimulus smoothly while keeping the head still.

Now, if you’re like me, you may be a bit surprised by the complexity of the nystagmus test. The officer can actually detect nystagmus and estimate the angle at which it occurred while standing on the side of a highway at 2 o’clock in the morning (usually)?

The next time you’re in the presence of someone who has had a few drinks try administering the nystagmus test. I can assure you it’s not so easy (but fun to try).

The High Rate of D.U.I. Arrests in North Carolina, June 27, 2010

According to statistics compiled by the F.B.I., North Carolina had the fourth highest number of D.U.I./D.W.I. arrests in 2009 — a total of 49,749 — only Michigan, California, and Florida reported more arrests.

Several factors are likely responsible for North Carolina’s high ranking. Aggressive pursuit of drunk drivers by local police departments is, not surprisingly, a major factor. Indeed, more sobriety checkpoints are conducted in North Carolina  each year then in many states combined — one of the highest numbers in the country.

Ok, well that one was relatively obvious. Other factors, however, aren’t quite as obvious. Statistics (again compiled by the F.B.I.) also clearly indicate a higher frequency of DUI/DWI arrests in smaller towns and cities than in major cities. Consider this: in year 2009 police in Chicago arrested 4,341 people on DUI/DWI charges (or about 0.15% of the population), whereas officers in Wilmington (NC) arrested 927 people on DUI/DWI charges (or about 1.2% of the population). So, all things being equal, you are almost 10 times more likely to be arrested for DUI/DWI in Wilmington than you are in Chicago.

There are several likely explanations for the radically different arrest rates in smaller cities compared to larger cities. First, in larger cities fewer people on average own a car — and even if they do, tend to rely more on public transportation, which is often an option after having had a little too much to drink. Also, let’s be honest, it is just harder to get pulled over for DUI/DWI on busy city streets (slow moving traffic, very frequent stops for traffic signals) than it is on a lonely country highway.

So, what does that mean for North Carolina? Well, aggressive DUI/DWI enforcement and most people living outside of very large cities — First in Flight — Fourth in DUI arrests