Iowa DUI Lawyer: How should I act during the traffic stop?

The important thing to remember here is that anger is not your friend during a traffic stop. Wide emotional swings are recorded as signs of impairment. Moreover, the time to challenge the propriety of a traffic stop is not during the stop itself; the time to challenge the propriety of a stop is in the orderly process of your criminal defense, should it get that far.

Many defendants who challenge police authority verbally or physically in the moment find themselves snared even further by law enforcement. Officers will charge them with interference with official acts or, worse yet, assault on persons in certain occupations, e.g., what we used to call Assault on a Peace Officer.

Countless YouTube videos exist where the target of an investigation challenges the authority of an officer. A very small percentage of such videos end when the officer merely folds or fatigues and decides the video will produce an inquiry too time and labor intensive to endure. However, the videos you do not see are where the defendant thinks they’re being clever but wind up too clever by half—getting arrested for interference or assault on a peace officer. Don’t be that person. And don't follow this foolish YouTube advice.

Also, in Iowa, don’t follow the advice of would-be YouTube lawyers or lawyer wannabe’s who discourage you from opening a window to present driver’s license, registration, and insurance. An officer can direct you to roll down your window to communicate with them face to face. Yes, they’re trying to observe for bloodshot, watery eyes, slurred speech, and odor of alcohol. But disobeying their directives, even if you think it will later be an impermissible search and/or seizure, will rack up more charges-- and may invalidate your later argument that the officer lacked requisite reasonable suspicion or probable cause.

An officer can direct you to roll down a window and even step out of the vehicle. Motorists who remain in their vehicle and refuse to roll down the window are left with broken windows, a scuffle, and an interference charge, sometimes with injury if the officer sustains an injury “assisting the motorist out of the vehicle.”

A motorist, however, has no duty to perform field sobriety tests. Performance is ostensibly voluntary. But the officer will insist on explaining the instructions in detail one at a time. You can refuse after the officer completes the instruction set for each test individually. However, the refusal will be marked as such and that refusal will itself be evidence.

You can refuse the final preliminary breath test, or, breath screen. Your refusal is most likely admissible on the issue of intoxication. Some officers will say the quiet part out loud: that the arrest is a foregone conclusion irrespective of a preliminary breath screen. However, that isn’t always true. Sometimes a subject will provide a preliminary breath screen below the presumptive level of intoxication. Many troopers and some officers will not pursue an arrest if the subject provides a preliminary breath screen below the legal limit. However, they almost certainly will ask questions related to prescription and illicit controlled substances to determine if the impairment that purport to see is related to alcohol or a combination of drugs and alcohol.

At this point, if the subject has provided a breath test over the presumptive level of intoxication, they will be transported to a law enforcement center upon the invocation of implied consent for breath or urine or a hospital if the officer is seeking blood either by search warrant or implied consent.

In the final analysis, understanding that the scene of the traffic stop is not the proper venue to challenge alleged impropriety is key to preventing additional charges related to resisting.

If you have been arrested for OWI or other criminal offense in Iowa, contact us for a free initial consultation.