DUI lawyer: What are Iowa's many 'breathalyzers'?

‘Breathalyzer’ is a long-retired marketing brand name for an alcohol breath testing device. The device and the American company that produced it are no longer in existence. However, some marketing terms stick—like Coke and Kleenex— even when other, more modern devices and companies occupy that space. Fun fact: the device that preceded it was called the Drunkometer—more than a little inflammatory and not likely to be able to be used in court as it is arguably “more prejudicial than probative” evidence, a violation of the Iowa Rules of Evidence.

In any case, the Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS) has certified both non-evidentiary and evidentiary breath testing devices for use in Iowa. None of them are branded breathalyzers, of course.

Non-evidentiary breath testing devices are portable units used during standardized field sobriety testing to determine whether “reasonable grounds” exist to temporarily detain a motorist and DUI suspect—called Operating While Intoxicated, or, OWI—for further evidentiary testing at a law enforcement center. They are called PBTs, for “preliminary breath tests” or “portable breath tests.” Such preliminary breath screens are not admissible before the jury on the issue of intoxication—but they can be used at a pretrial hearing upon a Defendant’s challenge to reasonable grounds necessary to invoke implied consent and detain for evidentiary testing. Police officers often tell suspects that the PBT is “not admissible in court” or “not admissible in a court of law.” Neither assertion is entirely accurate.

Once a subject either provides a PBT over the presumptive level of intoxication—which is .08 g ETOH/210 L breath— or refuses the PBT test, officers typically believe they possess the sum total grounds necessary to invoke implied consent and take the suspect back to the law enforcement center for further evidentiary testing.

There is just one device approved by the Iowa Department of Public Safety for evidentiary breath testing by law enforcement throughout the State of Iowa. That device is called the Datamaster DMT. It is manufactured by Intoximeter and maintained and recertified for continued use in Iowa by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. By all accounts, it is likely to be replaced with a more modern unit within the next two years—as most of the machines in active service have been assigned to law enforcement agencies since 2010.

Many suspects in statewide OWI arrests take umbrage at being asked to provide a desktop breath test indoors after they already provided a portable breath test outdoors at the scene of the traffic stop. That confusion is doubly felt if the officer brings the suspect directly to the law enforcement center for field sobriety testing and then requests a PBT in the same room that houses the evidentiary DMT. Moments later, the officer will request the “second” breath test. It is counterintuitive to uninitiated OWI arrestees that they would have to provide two such tests—surmising that the officer failed to follow proper procedure the first test result and is secretly attempting to get a “do-over” of that test with another machine. Unfortunately, while anomalies in testing do occur, a DMT followed by a PBT is not the result of such a failure.

If you have been arrested in a statewide Iowa DUI investigation and have appeared personally or on video court before the judge, contact us for an initial consultation.