SFSTs are part of the basic training for North Carolina law enforcement
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) evaluated a variety of field sobriety tests to determine which were scientifically accurate. NHTSA identified the Research Institute of Southern California as the center to conduct extensive testing of the various field sobriety tests to determine which had the highest level of accuracy.
Three tests were determined by SCRI and NHTSA to have the highest level of accuracy: the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test (HGN), the Walk and Turn Test (WAT), and the One-Legged Standing Test (OLS). These three tests became the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. While officers may perform other types of roadside tests, none of those other tests are part of the SFST and none of those tests have been evaluated for validity and reliability.
A common non-SFST test is an ABC test. The officer will ask the person to say their ABC’s from one letter to another letter. The problem with the ABC test is that no one knows if it indicates a disability or if it simply indicates that under stressful situations people just don’t do their ABC very well, regardless of whether they are disabled.
In 1986, the International Association of Chiefs of Police recommended that member law enforcement agencies begin using the NHTSA-developed Standardized Field Sobriety Tests as part of their investigations of drunk driving (DWI, DUI, OUI) incidents. .
One of the important things to know about standardized field sobriety tests is that they must be performed according to NHTSA instructions to remain valid. The NHTSA SFST Student Handbook states in capital letters that “IF ANY ELEMENT OF THE STANDARDIZED FIELD SOBRIETY TEST IS CHANGED, THE VALIDITY IS COMPROMISE.”
Sometimes when a defense attorney shows that SFSTs have not been performed according to NHTSA guidelines, a judge will dismiss that argument by saying, “Well, NHTSA is not the law in North Carolina.”
This is only partially true. It is true that North Carolina has not formally adopted the NHTSA guidelines as “law.”
But the North Carolina Assembly has in NCGS Sec. 17C created the North Carolina Commission on Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards.
The Commission has sole authority to establish the minimum training standards to be recognized as a law enforcement officer by the State of North Carolina.
The Commission has established Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) as the formal minimum training standards that all individuals must complete before they can assume the duties of a Law Enforcement Officer. in North Carolina.
And, the BLET training manual lists the NHTSA-validated standardized field sobriety tests as the tests that law enforcement officers can use to determine if someone has been DWI (driving while intoxicated).
So, in an important sense, NHTSA is the law of North Carolina.