In Texas, the police occasionally make mistakes when making an arrest for a DWI. These mistakes can invalidate the charges or cause other disruptions to the legal process, so it is important to know them in case they become relevant to a case in which you are involved.
DWI Mistakes
There are plenty of ways for the cops to get a DWI stop wrong. The biggest one is not having proper reasonable suspicion to make the stop. Without that, the whole stop is invalidated and any arrest or charge stemming from it is also invalidated. On top of that, the cops also need probable cause to make a DWI arrest, which they can only fulfill in certain ways. If the police engage in misconduct during the stop or while administering the DWI field sobriety test, this can also nullify the resulting charges.
The test process itself can also contain mistakes. If the cops on the scene try to draw a blood sample and do not follow the correct procedure, then the results of the test will not be admissible in court and cannot be used to convict you of DWI charges. The police also need to prove that you were actually driving the vehicle while intoxicated even if they do administer the test right and you do test above the legal limit.
There are plenty of ways for the cops to make mistakes during a DWI stop, and all of the can make the stop no longer effective in court. Most people don’t realize just how many ways there are to be protected against the results of a DWI stop.