ARE BREATH TESTS REALLY ACCURATE? 5/28/2012 Common sense would tell you yes. However, one important piece of information you should know is that along with police officers, breath test machines do lie. Defense attorney have not completely understood and challenges have not been upheld by the Appellate Courts in the State of Illinois to the accuracy checks of a breath machine in the State of Illinois. Not too long ago, a member of the Illinois State Police would have to check each breath test machine on a regular basis to ensure that they were working properly. These troopers would then document their check into a “logbook” showing that the machine was working properly on a particular date. Recently, the law was changed to allow these breath test machines to “self test” themselves to assure everyone that they were working properly. This new law was met with opposition from Defense attorneys who practice in the field of DUI Defense because – how do you confront or cross examine a machine? Nonetheless, many and most judges would hold that these self checks were appropriate to establish a foundation for the breath test result that an arrestee took at a police station.
Just recently, I became aware of a situation from the Wheeling Police Department which, in my opinion, causes scrutiny as to whether these machines can be relied on to self test themselves. Each machine has an ethanol tank inside it which is valid only to a certain date. After that date, the tank is expired and should not be used in the breath test machine. When a breath test machine does a self accuracy check it prints out the date at which the tank expires? However, how can it be explained that a breath test machine prints out that a tank is not expired when it ACTUALLY WAS EXPIRED. In other words, the self accuracy checks state that the machine is working properly with valid equipment, but it is actually working with expired equipment. Clearly, this does not make any sense. Even technicians from the manufacturer of Intoximeters, allegedly cannot explain it.
What does this mean for you? How do you know that the wrong expiration date is being substituted with the wrong breath sample or wrong numbers? You don’t. Until the law is changed, common sense suggests that these machines are not accurate. |
