6.7 DWI, Implied Consent, SFST, and Chemical Tests

DWI Investigation and Implied Consent

BPOC Chapter 23 is short but important: the unit goal is to demonstrate and apply working knowledge of detection, apprehension, and arrest of the intoxicated driver. Objective 23.1 requires successful completion of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Standardized Field Sobriety Testing course. The TCOLE handbook also references NHTSA SFST Practitioner completion and demonstrated proficiency for SFST instructor certification.

SFST questions should be treated as standardized-process questions. The local BPOC source does not reproduce the entire NHTSA manual in the allowed text, so this draft stays at the concept level. Know that the academy expects current NHTSA SFST course objectives, officer observation of impairment, proper administration, and accurate documentation.

Transportation Code Chapter 724 appears in both traffic and intoxicated-driver materials. BPOC lists applicability, consent to taking a specimen, taking of specimen, refusal limits and exceptions, incapable person, information provided before requesting specimen, breath specimen, blood specimen, test results, additional analysis, refusal statement, and officer duties for license suspension and written refusal report.

Scenario guidance: a driver is stopped for weaving, shows slurred speech and odor of alcoholic beverage, performs SFSTs, is arrested for DWI, refuses a specimen, and was involved in a serious crash. The answer should move through stop facts, impairment observations, standardized testing, arrest basis, statutory warning, specimen request, refusal documentation, and whether a warrant or exigent-circumstance basis is needed for a nonvoluntary blood specimen.

BPOC Chapter 22 warns that due to Missouri v. McNeely, the mandatory specimen statute should not be used to secure a mandatory specimen except in exigent circumstances, and a blood search warrant should be used to secure a nonvoluntary specimen. It also notes later Texas legislation that an officer may not require a specimen unless the officer obtains a warrant or has probable cause to believe exigent circumstances exist.

Exam trap: do not say implied consent alone always authorizes a forced blood draw after refusal. Another trap is forgetting the license-suspension paperwork after a refusal. BPOC specifically names the Peace Officer Sworn Report, Statutory Warning, Notice of Suspension, DWI Case Report, and mandatory blood draw form.

Study checkpoint: keep DWI evidence categories separate. Driving facts support the stop, physical observations support impairment suspicion, SFST performance supports the arrest decision, and Chapter 724 warnings and forms support the specimen and license process.