Portable radios during breath testing Data Master

[itsmewhoelse]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TN MI

What do yo think of officers using portable radios when doing a data master breath test? is that grounds for dismissal?

2. When i got my DUI the officer tested me with the data master in the back seat of police car in the jail garage inmate intake with 3 police car engines running as well as our car and yes the police radios was blasting?? Was that legal for him to have me take the test there and wouldn't the EMi interfere with data master with all the radio waves going on?

A: portable radios during breath testing. Radio waves from the portable radios/engines(car was running) can cause artificially high results, and the administrative rules prohibit using radios in the Datamaster testing area.

 

[itsmewhoelse]

here is a good article on it
DUI BLOG : Bad Drunk Driving Laws, False Evidence and a Fading Constitution

 

[CavemanLawyer]

Nearly all of the studies showing how RFI affect intoxilyzers were conducted years ago, and many intoxilyzer models ago. Today's machines are heavily shielded against RFI and also have RFI detectors. Yes I've read the numerous defense attorney websites saying that RFI detectors aren't accurate, but the only studies that confirm this, or that RFI has any real effect on modern intoxilyzers, all use astronomically rare setups and frequencies. The admissibility of various breath test instruments have been challenged in every state for all sorts of scientific reasons including susceptibility to RFI. Those cases specifically dealing with this issue have all determined that possible RFI alone does not render modern intoxilyzers scientifically unreliable. (Though RFI has been cited as one of several reasons why the machine is unreliable, in those few state(s?) that have deemed intoxilizyer results inadmissible.)

If they did in fact violate administrative procedures in conducting the breath test that is the type of thing that can prevent the automatic suspension of your driver's license, if you raise the issue in the ALR hearing. Otherwise, it is simply an issue to raise during a motion to suppress, where the burden is on you to show that the radio frequencies actually did interfere with the results, or it is an issue to raise during trial to attack the results. None of this will necessarily keep the BAC results from being admitted in trial, and even if it did, that is still not an automatic grounds for a dismissal since a blood alcohol concentration above .08 is just one of the ways to prove intoxication.

Seriously, RFI is an issue raised by every defense attorney in every DWI trial with a breath test. It is one of about 50 challenges to the machine that the defense attorney and the intoxilyzer supervisor (expert) go back and forth on in trial. Its all just a show for the jury.

 

[SIN EATER]

Are you sure that wasn't a portable breath tester and not a DataMaster ?

I've never heard of a DataMaster/Intoxilyzer used in that environment (the back seat of the patrol car) !
How did the officer watch you (for burping or vomiting or chewing something odd) for fifteen minutes prior to the test ?
Did you blow two times or just once ?

 

[CavemanLawyer]

The modern Datamaster line is portable and designed to be used in a mobile station such as a vehicle. I assume he saw the word Datamaster on the device, meaning he probably blew into one of these.
NPAS - Breath Testing with DataMaster?

The Intoxilyzer line (ex: Intoxilyzer 5000) are more accurate but their portable versions are, well, not so portable and are so expensive that only the largest cities tend to use them. These are the machines that you have to go to the station to use.