The very first thing the officer is trying to detect once he gets to the driver’s side window is if he can smell any scent of alcohol in the vehicle. Despite popular belief, spraying perfume or any other scent in the vehicle will not make the smell alcohol. Instead the vehicle now smells like alcohol and whatever scent the driver decided to spray in the vehicle. This will usually alert the officer that one, the driver is trying to mask the scent because he knows he can get in trouble and two that the driver has likely been drinking.
The officer then begins to observe the physical appearance of the driver generally looking for blood shot eyes, which are almost always a giveaway that the driver is intoxicated. The officer may also try to observe how pale or red the skin of the driver is because some people who consume too much alcohol will become very flushed with red on their face of appear extremely pale. At this point the officer may ask the driver if he has been drinking or may ask the driver to perform further actions such as asking for the production of his driver’s license and registration.
When the officer asks the driver to get his information often he is trying to observe how much difficulty the driver has in completing this task. If the driver fumbles around a lot to get to his information or even gives the officer something other than what he asked, this will arise further suspicion and build stronger evidence against the driver in the officer’s mind. Just the fact that the driver is acting nervous is not enough because that certainly is not enough since that is not out of the ordinary for someone who has been pulled over by the police. Rather what officers are looking for are behaviors that demonstrate a slow reaction time, sluggish behavior, and the inability of the driver to follow or understand simple instructions. It should be noted that no one of the factors mentioned is alone enough but that the officer takes a variety of factors and considers them all together in order to reach the level of probable cause needed to make an arrest.
