Breathalyzers are Grossly Unreliable, Report Claims

Pretty soon the holiday season and end-of-year parties will be upon us, forcing the police to once again ramp up efforts to prevent drunk driving.

However, there are serious problems with the accuracy, consistency, and trustworthiness of breathalyzers being used, either by the roadside or at the police station, according to a wide investigation conducted by The New York Times.

Because of that, not to mention human error and lax governmental oversight, more than 30,000 breath tests have been discarded by judges in Massachusetts and New Jersey in the past year alone. From coast to coast, thousands of other tests also have been invalidated in recent years.

In many cases, the breathalyzers are not properly calibrated, yielding results that are at times 40 percent too high, the newspaper reports. Technical experts have also found serious programming mistakes in the machines’ software.

Toothpaste, mouthwash and breath mints—even hand sanitizer and burping—may throw off the test results.

Also, maintaining these devices is up to police departments that sometimes have sub-par standards and lack expertise. In some cities, lab officials have used stale or home-brewed chemical solutions that warped results. In Massachusetts, officers used a machine with rats nesting inside.

And what are the consequences of all that? On one hand, people are wrongfully convicted based on dubious evidence and many are never notified that their cases were built on faulty tests. On the other hand, discarding the results of breathalyzers because flaws are discovered will inevitably let some dangerous drivers back on the road.

“If we are going to put people in jail and punish people, take their liberties away, take their licenses away, we have an obligation to be accurate,” said a defense lawyer interviewed by The New York Times.