Massachusetts DWI DUI OUI Field Sobriety Test Police Training Manual

The ability to detect DWI violators is the key to general deterrence and possibly, the greatest impediment to it. If we accept the three-to-one ratio of failed detections as being reasonably accurate, the implications are rather alarming. Consider the impact on a DWI violator’s subsequent behavior when, after being stopped by the police, is allowed to continue driving. Very likely, these DWI violators and their friends will become even more convinced of their ability to handle drinking and driving. Further, they will come to believe that they will never be arrested because police officers can’t determine when they are “over the limit.” Instead of creating general DWI deterrence, this attitude breeds specific reinforcement. This helps to develop a feeling among DWI violators that they have nothing more to fear from police than an occasional ticket for a minor traffic offense.

On the positive side, the ratio of undetected to detected violations suggests that much can be accomplished with existing resources, if we use those resources as efficiently as possible. By just being able to improve detection skills of law enforcement officers we could experience an increase in the arrest/violation ratio of 4-in-2000 without any increase in contacts.

PHYSIOLOGY OF ALCOHOL

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF ALCOHOL

Alcohol is the most abused drug in the United States.

“Alcohol” is the name given to a family of closely related and naturally- occurring chemicals. Each of the chemicals that is called an “alcohol” is made up of molecules that contain a single oxygen atom and varying numbers of hydrogen and carbon atoms. The simplest alcohol has only one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. The next alcohol has two carbons and six hydrogens. The third alcohol has three carbons and eight hydrogens. The next one in the “chain” has one more carbon and two more hydrogen atoms than the one before. That is how the alcohols differ from one another.
Alcohols are molecularly very similar and produce similar effects. They produce intoxicating effects when ingested into the human body. Only one of them is meant for human consumption. However, when ingested in substantial quantities it can cause death.

The ingestible alcohol is known as ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. Its chemical abbreviation is ETOH. The “ET” stands for “ethyl” and the “OH” represents the single oxygen atom and one of the hydrogen atoms, bonded together in what chemists refer to as the “hydroxy radical”. Ethanol is the variety of alcohol that has

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