Georgia police arrest drivers because they "think" they are on drugs.

[Sunburn74]

Blood levels of thc do not correlate strongly with intoxication. For marijuana really I think the only way they can assess is a legitimate video recorded field sobriety test so that everyone can see the objective evidence during the trial and draw their own conclusions.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Blood levels of thc do not correlate strongly with intoxication. For marijuana really I think the only way they can assess is a legitimate video recorded field sobriety test so that everyone can see the objective evidence during the trial and draw their own conclusions.

I'm trying to find this, but a few years ago there were reports of metabolites that only last during intoxication, but accurate testing that was cost effective was the hurdle.

 

[woolfe9998]

It's a "political issue" that the courts nor the police want to be changed. They don't want to lose the revenue generated and I guarantee that most of the innocent people swept up don't have the money for lawyers and take some kind of deal that keeps a DUI off their records but still adds revenue to the court and city coffers. I blame the cops for not using better judgment when making a purely objective observation that can fuck up someone's life that maybe they should err on the side of giving the person the benefit of the doubt. With the consequences of being wrong so high there needs to be a bigger "buffer" between them making an arrest based off their assumptions.

And there are no consequences to allowing someone who is high to continue to drive? Suppose you give someone "the benefit of the doubt" and they proceed to run someone over because they're high 5 minutes later. Everyone would blame the cop for malfeasance. There's consequences to erring either way but you see only one side here.

The rest of your post is speculation. I don't think you really know about the merits of these other ideas, how much consideration they have been given, what they cost, how accurate they really are, and whether there are more states about to adopt them. Once upon a time the police everywhere adopted the PAS tests, but if memory serves, it took awhile before they were used basically everywhere.

So far as revenue, you might explain how they got revenue from cases which were dismissed, and for which they had to use resources to pursue, including precious lab time. Those cases discussed in that video cost them money. If there is a better alternative for a quick test, this arguably would save them money because every wrongful arrest costs them.

I think you have a rather dim view of police and that guides all the assumptions you make.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Note to self- Continue to avoid Georgia.

 

[Darwin333]

And there are no consequences to allowing someone who is high to continue to drive? Suppose you give someone "the benefit of the doubt" and they proceed to run someone over because they're high 5 minutes later. Everyone would blame the cop for malfeasance. There's consequences to erring either way but you see only one side here.

Nonsense. The cops aren't going to lose their jobs, get locked up, have their vehicles towed, have to post bail or be forced to retain lawyers all on their own dimes because they made the wrong, completely objective, judgment call if someone was high or not. Hell that almost never happens when they make the judgment call and freaking shoot someone.

I don't care how trained they are, the above situation HAS happened already and will happen again. All I'm advocating is not locking up innocent people and completely fucking their lives up in the process, if they can't do their jobs without that one simple stipulation then they need to figure out a different way to do said jobs. It would be a bit different if these people were "just" spending a night in jail but it's much much worse than that.

So far as revenue, you might explain how they got revenue from cases which were dismissed, and for which they had to use resources to pursue, including precious lab time. Those cases discussed in that video cost them money. If there is a better alternative for a quick test, this arguably would save them money because every wrongful arrest costs them.

THREE cases got tossed because those three people hired private attorneys. The rest of the poor schmucks who couldn't afford a private attorney and got assigned a public defender who had barely enough time to skim their files took the plea deal for a non-DUI offense, I guaran-fucking-tee it. Hell I'd almost surely take that deal if I was in their shoes and my own public attorney was telling me there was a good chance I'd lose and have a DUI conviction with much stiffer penalties for daring to take it to trial.

Innocent people are railroaded into plea deals every single day in this country, if you don't know that you need to remove your head from a specific orifice. I personally know a guy that was given the choice of a plea deal which he would get probation or taking it to trial and potentially getting 20+ years in jail. Guess what his innocent ass did? Yet that is considered a "win" and a conviction for the justice department...

 

[davmat787]

Fly over and keep calm.

There are just some states that I would avoid going to.

I'm sure there are plenty of other states that would love nothing more than to be added to your "flyover" list.

You'd be a fool to submit to the normal field tests to begin with. Generally speaking there is no legal requirement for someone to submit to the standard physical tests you typically see. All you are doing is giving probable cause. Refusing a PAS, however, will result in some heavy consequences.

That's what I've done twice while at the same time respectfully asking to be given a breathalyzer test which I passed each time and that was the end of it. Both times I was dealing with Washington State Troopers who were extremely professional and don't have that "not in MY city!" bullshit mentality that municipal police department officers seem to have.

Harass and Collect, not Serve and Protect

The following article has some stats for CA regarding revenue generated from checkpoints and other related revenue. And officers themselves benefit financially from all the overtime staffing checkpoints which are apparently overstaffed to the point the headcount can be 5x the federally recommend headcount levels.