Importance of Keeping Your Mouth Shut During a DUI Arrest
What trips up most people during a DUI stop is the Officer’s questions. We are going to give you the answers that will be the most effective in helping you and your Defense Attorney defend your case in the future. This formula has never failed to protect the accused and assisting them in helping them to refute the Officer’s claims. This formula may also assist you a DUI Checkpoints. Often Officers will ask a number of questions in order to obtain evidence to help the prosecutor in bringing charges against you if they believe you are under the influence while driving a motor vehicle. In addition, the Officer might make up a reason for pulling you over simply to determine if you are under the influence. This is especially true if your out late at night. The following is how an ideal Question-Answer situation should go with an Officer. Remember always be polite to the Officer. We also have another article that provides crucial tips of what to do when pulled over by a police officer for a possible dui.
DUI Arrest Officer’s Question 1: “Good Evening. Do you know why I stopped you?”
What You Should Say: “No Officer I do not.”
- Reason: Simply say you do not. If you give a reason, you could be admitting to something that the Officer had no reason prior to pulling you over to add to your charge. In addition, if it’s another offense like a tail light, or speeding or swerving, you should definitely not admit to it. If its something like a license plate tag that you know of you should inform them. If it’s not a license plate tag and they tell you it is, be on high alert especially if its late at night. That means the Officer had to specifically select your car and put it into his system.
DUI Arrest Officer’s Question 2: “Ok. So have a sip of anything tonight?”
- Variations:
- So how many drinks have you had tonight?
- Where are you coming from?
- Which Bar did you go to tonight?
What You Should Say: “I have nothing to say officer.”
- Variations:
- “I prefer not to answer those questions”
- “I’m sorry officer I don’t answer any questions”
- Reasoning:
- If you say something else like answering the Officers question, such as, “I went to dinner with co-workers” then the questioning just gets worse “Oh so you went to dinner? Where did you guys go? How many drinks did you have there?” Even if you admit to having 1 drink, that still gives the Officer probable cause to order you out of the car and charge you with DUI. You just admitted to drinking before getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, you just lost the case.
DUI Arrest Officer’s Question 3: “That’s fine. Can you hand me your license and registration, please”.
What You Should Say: Silently hand them over. Say nothing.
- (Officers will generally attempt to ask you questions at this time or look around in your car when your distracted. Also be wary if he leans into your car a little to see if he can smell alcohol. Still Say nothing)
Breaking Point!
At this time the Officer might start to get a little upset since you are not making his job to pin you down on any evidence easy. The following response may be hard for you to say because you visually see the Officer upset. But for your own protection, there is nothing beneficial in opening your mouth and answering the Officer’s questions.
DUI Arrest Officer’s Question 4: “Is there a reason you’re not answering any of my questions? You’re not being very cooperative! I think you might have had something to drink. I could just test you and lock you up right now. I can do that you know! Do you want that? Is that why you’re not answering my questions?”
What You Should Say: “I understand you’re doing your job Officer. But I have nothing to say”.
The most important takeaways from this exercise is:
- Speaking to the Officer is a No-No, it will be used against you if you say anything.
- Speaking gives them the chance to smell you breath
- Speaking to the gives them the chance to determine if your speech is slurred, slow, or rambled.
- Any pleas, apologizes, crying, excuse, alleged medical problems etc will not help you explain why you drank before getting behind the wheel of a car.
WARNING!!!
If you are drunk and you follow all of our steps to a tee, remember you can still be arrested. These tips are to help protect yourself when charges are brought. If you follow these tips there is not much the court has to go on and there is a higher possibility of your case being dismissed. If you are under the influence an officer will find out. You can hide it as best you can but there is a high likelihood the officer will know. “They might have been born at night, but they were not born last night”.
