Criminal defense attorney Ira Weissman addresses the question of whether you should remain silent when you’re driving and you’ve been stopped by a police officer who pulls you over because you’re suspected of driving while intoxicated.
If you’re pulled over for drunk driving, you should do what anybody should do if they’re arrested for any crime or suspected of any crime – you should not talk to the police. But in almost every case that I take in and that I defend, there is an admission to drinking some amount of alcohol. And whether that person when they’re pulled over, whether they’re being truthful or whether they’re underestimating or lying to the officer about what they’ve had, they’re still admitting to drinking something. And there’s nothing in the law that requires you to answer that question.
In fact, if you simply say to the officer, “I want to speak to an attorney”, the fact of the matter is, if you are arrested and that case proceeds, there will be nothing reported as far as an admission by you.
So you never have the obligation to talk to the police and certainly no obligation to make an admission to drinking something if you know that “by the way this is unfolding, he suspects me of being intoxicated”.
If the officer is taking you out of the car and he’s now asking, “have you been drinking?”, whether you’ve been drinking or not, well if you haven’t been drinking, you can say no, but if you have been drinking, the answer really should be, “I’d like to talk to an attorney”. Even at that moment, and there’s really nothing the officer can do. There’s nothing he can do if you just don’t answer the question.