Breath Tests Are A Linchpin In The Fight Against Drunken Driving. The Problem Is That They’re Often Unreliable.
The New York Times investigates the machines, which are found in nearly every police station in America yet can yield results that were at times 40 percent too high. The consequences of the legal system’s reliance on these tests are far-reaching as people are wrongfully convicted based on dubious evidence.
The New York Times:
These Machines Can Put You In Jail. Don’t Trust Them.
A million Americans a year are arrested for drunken driving, and most stops begin the same way: flashing blue lights in the rearview mirror, then a battery of tests that might include standing on one foot or reciting the alphabet. What matters most, though, happens next. By the side of the road or at the police station, the drivers blow into a miniature science lab that estimates the concentration of alcohol in their blood. If the level is 0.08 or higher, they are all but certain to be convicted of a crime. (Cowley and Silver-Greenberg, 11/3)
The New York Times:
From The First Drunken Driving Case To Modern Challenges
Read the documents The Times gathered to understand breath-testing machines, and the problems that have caused tens of thousands of tests to be thrown out. (Cowley and Silver-Greenberg, 11/3)
