Tag: calibration

Calibration Matters

Thousands of people each year are subjected to preliminary breath tests (PBTs) by Iowa law enforcement officers in an effort to determine their alcohol concentration as part of criminal investigations.  One of the most frequent situations in which PBT’s are used are to determine if a person should be arrested for operating while intoxicated or if implied consent should be invoked.  Officers are required by law to not only calibrate their preliminary breath testing devices each month but are also required to keep a log of these calibrations and the failure to do so can have significant consequences.  Attorney Matt […]

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Preliminary Breath Test Logs Strike Again

Carroll, Carroll County, Iowa.  A commercial vehicle driver’s driving privileges were spared and the Operating While Intoxicated accusation was dismissed outright after it was discovered that the preliminary breath test (PBT) log did not comply with Iowa requirements. A preliminary breath test device is the breath test that law enforcement requests out on the road, prior to making a decision to bring a driver in for further testing.  It does not have all of the built-in safeguards that the DataMaster breath test has at the station.  Because of what the court has described as “inherent unreliability” of the PBT, law […]

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PBT Log Out of Date = License Saved and OWI Avoided

Fort Dodge, Webster County, Iowa.  GRL Law’s investigation revealed that the arresting officer failed to keep his Preliminary Breath Test (PBT) devise properly calibrated and documented as required by Iowa law.  The officer based his request for a breath sample at the station upon the PBT test result.  Failure to comply with the calibration, documentation and reporting requirements required that the judge disregard the preliminary breath sample result.  Without that result, the officer did not have the legal requirements to invoke the procedures of Iowa’s implied consent law.  As a consequence of all of this, the Iowa DOT could not […]

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