[eric_amanda]

I thought I would share this experience with you all.

Yesterday morning I was on my way to view yet another house. I was stopped at a police road block. I wound down my window and was asked by the police officer to say my name and address in to a machine that looked a little like a dictaphone. I did this, and was told to go on my merry way.

Being a little spooked by this I was too scared to ask what it was all about and just assumed he was doing some sort of traffic survey!! (I have never been stopped before either here or in the UK!!)

I subsequently met up with the real estate agent who was a couple of cars behind me. He informed me that I had just been BREATH TESTED!!! How odd!! and what a sneaky way to go about it!!

Hats off to the NZ Police who had me fooled!! :nice1 :clap

[karltsmith]

Not sure where the law lies on this one! I think there are grounds for claiming entrapment which would invalidate the test as evidence????

There was a case in Auckland circa 1989 where a speading motorist was persued by the then MOT police. He finally pulled up at home on his driveway where he was promptly arrested for speeding. However because he had been arrested on his own driveway which was private land the MOT were out of there jurisdiction and so his clever lawyers had the case thrown out!!!!

If such a test is to be performed surely the officer should state his intent or reason for conducting the test and the consequences for a failed test ???? What could they do if you said NO? Matbe they would have to come clean!!!!

:booby

PS I'm no expert on NZ law and certainly don't condone drinking and driving.....I'm just interested in the ways in which laws in enforced...... and sometimes bent!!!

[Carol]

This has happened to me many many times - and I've never really given it a second thought. In fact I quite like the fact that it is being done.
I don't drink and drive so why should others get away with it?


Having said that - it has never occurred to me before now - why I have not wondered why they are asking me to do this.
And to be honest - I am nearly certain that they DO say to you before you give your name and address something like "standatory breath testing ma'am"

(I love that whole ma'am thing...makes me feel almost....regal!)
:nice1

Icouldnt swear to it...but I've never once wondered why they are doing it....so it must be obvious in some way.
Maybe there was a "breath testing" road sign up - I really cant remember.

Carol

[eric_amanda]

I don't remember seeing a sign up saying what was happening, although I was probably all of a fluster at being stopped and the amount of police cars present!! And the police officer certainly said nothing about it being a breath test, just can tou say your name and address into this!!

Karl your probably right about the entrapment thing and the law, however I have to admit to being one of those people who has 'nothing to hide' so they can interogate me and breath test me all they like, the reading probably read 'not had a drink for days but is that stressed could probably do with a good Vodka fix!' the officer probably felt sorry for me and let me go on my way!

[karltsmith]

:laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh

[Carol]

:laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh

Wouldnt that be great!!!
:laugh :laugh

love it.


C

[Mildred]

Up until I left the police 10 years ago we used 3 types of breath test. The old fashioned one where you had to break the end of a glass tube and put a special mouth piece over it, the 2nd one was a battery charged one, and the last one was if you were positive and was done at the station. All three had to be blown into and even when sober took considerable puff! Unless technology has changed dramatically it doesn't sound like a breath test to me but then again ten years ago we only had cell phones the size of a small case instead of mobile ones :roll:

[drumminj]

Does neither the UK or NZ have something similiar to the US's 4th amendment regarding search and seizure? In the states, while you may not have anything to hide, many people still mind, as they are constitutionally protected from things such as this.

Perhaps it is not legislated as such, but I'm curious what the average citizen's opinion of such things is.

Man, it's going to be hard to adjust to certain shifts in the mentality of the people around me.

J

[Pam Learnihan]

Hi

What a crafty way to go about giving you a breath test!! Still if that happens to either of us when we come over we will know exactly what it is for :D

Pam

[evelien]

Hi

Are you sure about this being a breath test????? I live in Holland and here when you have to take a breath test you have to blow real hard on the apparatus and in most cases repeat it before the result shows.

My God, I just realized how this sounds. :wah

It is meant as a serious reaction though. I can't imagine talking to machine gives a reliable result.

[eric_amanda]

I only know what the real estate agent told me. I am still completely blind on this one and agree with all the comments you guys have brought up. However he ensures me that it was indeed a breath test and the police do them more frequently at night but I guess they were testing all the rush hour traffic as it was just after 9am!

I wondered if this monitor that they are using just picks up an indication of alcohol on your breath and then if you fail that test maybe they invite you to take one of those tests that you blow into???????!!!!!!!!

Do we have an NZ policeman on this site that can help us further???

Amanda

[Radders]

Amanda,
Didn't that machine used to be called a policeman's nose!!??
Now they need a machine to be able to tell whether someone has alcohol on their breath?
Maybe they are for police officers with colds. A bunged up nose is no excuse for not spotting a drink driver!

[veronica]

sounds more like they were looking for the morning after drivers.