I have clients who often are asking the police in the breathalyzer room- “I’m not impaired. What if I blow a zero. Do I get to go home?” The answer is always the same- no. You are still getting arrested. Why? The short answer is that the officer arrested you for potentially being impaired. Impairment can mean for alcohol or for drugs. The officer may have thought it was alcohol and once you blew a 0.00% on the breathalyzer he or she then is turning their focus to what drugs or narcotics are in your blood causing impairment. So, once you are done with the breath test procedure at the police station you would then be escorted to the hospital for a urine sample. From the time of arrest the officer has 3 hours to get that sample. You can cooperate or refuse. If you give the sample it will take weeks to get the results back. Therefore, you get to spend the night in jail charged with DUI. At the next bond hearing you would get a bond and can go home. If in a few weeks when the results of the urine test come back and show nothing in your system that would cause impairment, then your lawyer will have the case dismissed.What if you blow a 0.00% and then refuse to give urine or blood? Then you have the same license issues you would have as if you refused the breathalyzer exam. There is another blog post on that.
I hope that will answer a very common question that gets asked a bunch.