Why Drivers Should Never Consent to a Field Sobriety Test

In June, 2024, the Tennessee Highway Patrol gave Stephanie Fair, a non-drinking mother of four, a roadside field sobriety test (FST), after which they arrested her for driving under the influence (DUI.) Blood tests released months later showed zero alcohol or drugs in the former pop star’s system.

Justin Beery of Alabama was arrested for DUI in March 2025 after Alabama police pulled him over after he'd worked a 14-hour work shift. Subsequent blood tests confirmed there were no drugs or alcohol in his system. Beery reportedly now drives with a letter from his psychiatrist explaining his inability to perform field sobriety tests due to his autism.

On October 2, 2025, 19-year-old Shorter University football player McClain Fineran blew a perfect 0.00 on a roadside breathalyzer, but Rome, Georgia police officers asked him to perform a field sobriety test as well. They arrested him for DUI, but the subsequent blood test showed no traces of illegal or prescription drugs.

The above is just a sample of all the civilians who've suffered at the hands of incompetent and sometimes racist cops operating in a cop-centric system that provides few disincentives for their abuses of power, some of which are encouraged by police department quotas for DUI arrests.

What's the common thread running through these three false and damaging arrests? The drivers all consented to taking an FST. There's a simple, easy-to-follow lesson here: Never, under any circumstances, take such a test. While refusal of a blood alcohol test (not administered roadside) usually triggers an automatic license suspension, field sobriety tests are voluntary, which most drivers don't know and won't hear from a police officer. If cops ever ask you to complete an FST, know that the situation has escalated. This means they've already gotten you out of your vehicle, which means you're going into custody for a DUI booking.

FSTs, which rely on subjective scoring from police often inadequately trained, are designed with law enforcement, not the driver, in mind. Their purpose is to produce evidence against the driver. Completely sober drivers can fail them with a slight sway, by using their arms for balance, or missing the tricky heel-to-toe walking test by inches. Nerves, fatigue, age, weight, medical conditions, and footwear come into play. Women aren't allowed to change into their “sensible shoes” before completing physical tasks that would be challenging under any conditions.

Politely decline any police request or demand to take an FST. The demand is a bluff. And politely decline to answer all questions from law enforcement in this situation.

Drivers are protected by two Constitutional amendments. Under the Fifth Amendment, they have the right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination. Nobody detained by the police should wait until they get their rights read to them to remain silent, because that doesn't happen until an arrest is underway. The Fifth Amendment right kicks in at the moment of detention. That's the time to clam up.

The Fourth Amendment affords additional protections. Cops ask standard questions about where you're coming from and how many drinks you've had in order to meet that amendment’s requirement for “probable cause” for an arrest. If you're tired and/or nervous, they can say your speech was slurred. That's “probable cause.” They’re looking to the FST, which has a high incidence of false positives, to provide additional probable cause, so not answering their voluntary questions and not taking their voluntary tests thwarts their attempts to establish probable cause. It's a matter of self-defense. If a judge determines there was no probable cause for the arrest, the state's case is going nowhere.

Law-abiding drivers—the so-called “good citizens”—often feel compelled to cooperate with law enforcement, but in a DUI detainment the stakes are too high. Check out the stakes for Stephanie Fair, the mom arrested in Tennessee. Within 12 hours of her arrest, her mugshot was published on the website Scoop Nashville and its social media pages. The owner of Scoop Nashville also allegedly offered to take it down for $10,000, eventually "discounting" it to $7500 as a favor to her attorney. Because the owner of Scoop Nashville died shortly after the incident, the site's social media content became stagnant. Thus, Fair’s mugshot and the false narrative of her arrest remain visible online today, even though all charges were dismissed once her lab results returned. Laws are needed to protect citizens against extortion attempts by sleazy “journalists.”

McClain Fineran, the college football player falsely arrested for DUI, made two mistakes. The first was calling the police. He should’ve left a note with his information on the windshield of the car he bumped and driven away, as required by Georgia law in such minor incidents. His second mistake was consenting to an FST. The charges against Fineran were dropped, but he felt ostracized and transferred to another school to play football. And after graduation, Fineran will have to worry about background checks for job applications. DUI arrests, even the false ones, show up on them.

In a report released in January, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation published data showing 419 DUI arrests were made in 2024, even though blood tests would later detect zero alcohol or other intoxicants. This figure represents about 2.5 percent of the nearly 17,000 blood samples submitted statewide. In a single state, the law enforcement system abused 425 innocent people in one year, and then didn't compensate them.

There must be improved officer training in use of FSTs, and better monitoring of officers with patterns of negative-test arrests. Courts should be more aggressive in suppressing evidence from flawed stops/tests, especially when there was no reasonable suspicion for the stop. And all DUI arrest quotas for cops must be discontinued, as they serve the police at the expense of the people.

An impediment to reform is the perception among lawmakers and law enforcement that it’ll be perceived as being weak on drunk drivers. Noisy advocacy groups like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) often frame any change that might limit arrests or make probable cause harder to establish as endangering lives.

But despite the inaction of cowardly politicians afraid of shrill, single-issue groups like MADD, there's hope for reform. Tennessee responded to its “sober arrest” scandal with legislation requiring law enforcement to annually compile and publicly report the number of DUI arrests where no alcohol or intoxicants were detected in subsequent tests. The politicians behind this new law have indicated their plans to pursue further reforms, such as improved police training, policy tweaks with law enforcement, and further accountability measures.

But waiting for politicians to act will always remain the second best defense against government overreach, which is the government's default mode. Nothing beats knowing your rights.