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SFSTs are part of North Carolina Basic Law Enforcement Training

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) evaluated a variety of field sobriety tests to determine which were scientifically accurate. NHTSA identified the Research Institute of Southern California as the center for extensive testing of the various field sobriety tests to determine which ones had the highest level of accuracy.

SCRI and NHTSA determined that three tests had the highest level of accuracy: the horizontal gaze nystagmus test (HGN), the walk and turn test (WAT), and the single-legged standing test (OLS). These three tests became the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. While officers may conduct other types of roadside tests, none of those other tests are part of the SFSTs and none of those tests have been evaluated for validity and reliability.

A common test that is not an SFST is an ABC test. The officer will ask the person to say their ABC from letter to letter. The problem with the ABC test is that no one knows if it indicates a disability or if it simply indicates that in stressful situations people just don’t do their ABC very well, regardless of whether they are disabled.

In 1986, the International Association of Chiefs of Police recommended that member police agencies begin using the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests developed by the NHTSA as part of their investigations of driving while intoxicated (DWI, DUI, OUI) incidents. .

One of the important things to know about standardized field sobriety tests is that they must be performed according to NHTSA instructions to remain valid. The NHTSA SFST student handbook states in capital letters that “IF ANY OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE STANDARDIZED FIELD SOBRIETY TEST IS CHANGED, THE VALIDITY IS COMPROMISED.”

Sometimes when a defense attorney shows that SFSTs have not been done according to NHTSA guidelines, a judge will dismiss that argument by saying, “Well, the NHTSA is not the law in North Carolina.”

This is only partially true. It is true that North Carolina has not formally adopted the NHTSA guidelines as “law”.

But the North Carolina Assembly has in NCGS Sec. 17C created the North Carolina Commission on Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards.

The Commission has the sole authority to establish the minimum training standards to be recognized as a law enforcement officer by the State of North Carolina.

The Commission has established Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) as the formal minimum training standards that all individuals must complete before they can assume the duties of a Law Enforcement Officer. in North Carolina.

And, the BLET training manual lays out the NHTSA-validated standardized field sobriety tests as the tests law enforcement officers can use to determine if someone has been DWI (driving while intoxicated).

So, in an important sense, NHTSA is North Carolina law.

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