You have certain rights that need to be respected during a DUI stop in Chantilly, and it is important to be aware of them and the need for an experienced attorney as soon as possible. Depending on the various factors in your case, an officer may want to search your vehicle to gather evidence, and you are advised to decline and say no when an officer asks for permission. Depending on the facts of your case, they may want to perform varying field sobriety tests, which you can refuse. You also have the right to counsel during a DUI Stop.
A skilled attorney will be able to help you protect your rights during a DUI stop in Chantilly, and prove if they have not been protected in your DUI case.
A person does not need to consent to a search of their vehicle during a traffic stop unless the officer has independent probable cause to search their vehicle. For example, if an officer observes any kind of contraband, illegal drugs, or illegal substances in their vehicle or if they smell drugs, such as marijuana, then they can search their vehicle for that marijuana. It is going to depend on the specific facts of their case.
After being arrested, someone does not need to consent to a search of their vehicle. Once they are arrested for DUI at that point, their vehicle is going to be impounded and as a side effect of impounding it is going to be inventoried. There is going to be an inventory search that is going to be conducted on their vehicle.
The biggest mistakes to avoid in Chantilly DUI stops include someone admitting that they have had any alcohol to drink whatsoever. Another mistake is performing any of the field sobriety tests, which a person should decline every single time, as well as refusing to blow into the Preliminary Breath Test (PBT). A person should not do that unless they are sure they have not been drinking at all. It is always better to not blow into that unless someone is sure they are going to have a 0.00.
If the person has admitted to any of these things, that gives the officer the probable cause for an arrest.
When a person is physically arrested and in custody, Miranda rights would come into play, especially if the officers were attempting to ask questions about their crime afterward. But if they are in a traffic stop and they are supposedly free to leave, it is going to be considered a consensual encounter if the officers ask them any questions and they respond.
An officer that pulls someone over and asked them whether or not they have been drinking without reading their Miranda rights is fine and anything that they say to then is going to be kept in because that is going to be considered a consensual encounter. They are going to be considered to be speaking with the officer of their own free will.
Someone’s rights during a DUI stop in Chantilly are to refuse the field sobriety tests, to limit their answers to the police officer to basic information of their name, giving them their ID or driver’s license, their proof of insurance, and their registration. A person has the right to not answer other questions such as where they are coming from, where they are going to, or whether or not they have had anything to drink.
A person does not have to perform a field sobriety test, they do not have to get out of their car unless they are under arrest and they do not have to allow them to search their car. They do not have to blow into a PBT. All of these are rights that a person has to refuse at the traffic stop leading to a DUI investigation.
Someone’s rights during or immediately after a DUI arrest include their right to remain silent. They do not have to say anything, they do not have to implicate themselves in any way, and they have the right to have an attorney present while they are being questioned, and they should certainly assert those rights. They could assert those rights and they can do so frequently, if they are continuing to ask them questions and they do not want to answer.