I was playing with my new Alcosensor IV from Intoximeters, Inc.. It is Georgia’s portable breath tester of choice. I found that the “mouth alcohol” (residual alcohol from having recently taken a drink) lasts much longer than I would have thought. My drink of beer had me over the legal limit for almost five minutes and wasn’t back down to where it ought to be for a good fifteen minutes.
The significance of this is huge when we are talking about a police officer’s formulation of his decision to arrest. Don’t think for a second that the number on the alcosensor isn’t what drives arrests. When a citizen is literally drinking and driving with an open container in the car, chances are that they will blow a high number on the Alcosensor if they agree to blow. This reading will be inflated and not reflective of their true BAC. This is a bad problem with officers that administer the Alcosensor prior to the SFST’s. He becomes biased and loses all objectivity in grading and scoring the SFST’s.Â