New Jersey’s law enforcement officers and prosecutors take drunk driving seriously.
Many people from all walks of life in Hackensack and the other Bergen County neighborhoods can easily find themselves pulled over for a DUI investigation or detained at a sobriety checkpoint.
Although relatively common, these are scary experiences.
Someone who has had a couple of drinks may be worried that they had just one too many and will face a DUI charge and the serious consequences that come with it.
Also, police not surprisingly do sometimes come to the wrong conclusions because someone is nervous, has a medical condition or otherwise gives off the impression that they are intoxicated even if they are not.
It is important for people to understand in advance how much they need to say or do during a traffic stop should that stop turn into a drunk driving investigation.
New Jersey drivers are required to submit to a certified test
New Jersey’s law requires a driver who is pulled over by the police to submit to a certified test to measure the amount of alcohol in their blood. These are usually breath tests or blood draws. A driver who refuses to submit to one of these will face fines and other penalties.
Beyond that, drivers should be polite, but they can verbally refuse to cooperate with a number of common steps in a drunk driving investigation:
- They do not have to tell the officer how much they had to drink or give other statements
- They do not have to take field sobriety tests
In fact, agreeing to any of these common requests may keep the investigating officer happy, but it also can mean that a person gives the authorities the information they need to prove their case.
In either New York or New Jersey, a DUI can have serious financial and other consequences. Someone facing this type of charge should consider speaking with an experienced drunk driving defense attorney.