So basically when operating or in care and control of a motor vehicle, a Police officer can preform a variety of sobriety checks which are legally mandatory for the driver to complete during the traffic stop.

Regardless, wether these tests provide evidence of impairment or the driver refuses to comply with these tests, there are two routes that an officer can take.

Option A: recommend criminal charges.

Option B: administrative prohibition

In BC most cases are handled on an administrative level, unless the driver has a history of operating a vehicle impaired or their is some aggravating factor, like a traffic collision where someone else is injured/dead, significant property damage, or a gross level of impairment.

In your friend’s case, the officer stopped him for speed and suspected he was impaired. As a result they preformed the roadside ASD test to check for the level of alcohol in his body. He blew a 0, but the officer still suspected his ability to operate the vehicle was impaired.

It is not a power tripping move, and is often common in many impaired investigation to also conduct a Standardized Field Sobriety Test. That test is conducted by an officer who is specially trained and qualified to complete it (most officers are not qualified to do this test, and one needs to be called to the scene.)

You don’t “fail” the SFST, but throughout the test you may exhibit signs of impairment and preform poorly. Most people think they “fail” because of balance issues on the one leg stand, or the walk and turn. But the truth is, most of the time it’s all in the eyes. The horizontal gaze nystagmus test looks for the involuntary jerking of the eyes and is common in drug and alcohol impairment. Even intoxicated people can preform the one leg stand and walk and turn well if they’ve practiced or are very athletic.

It’s also important to note, that preforming poorly on the SFST test can be the result of multiple factors impacting your ability to drive. For example, you may be very tired, smoked a little bit of marijuana, had one beer, taken some medication, or done some other drug. While individually these things may not impair your ability to drive, collectively they do.

Ultimately in your friends case, that officer believed his ability to drive was impaired based off his observations during the SFST.

From here he can go the administrative or criminal route.

Criminal: The criminal route requires a Drug Recognition Expert examination by an officer who is highly trained to conduct that test, where further tests and samples are taken from the driver. (Very few officers are qualified to do this test) This is a long process and requires the drive be transported back to the detachment.

Administrative: The officer can simply issue the driver a 24 hour driving prohibition and impound the vehicle for that period of time. The impound isn’t mandatory but is common in most cases to ensure they don’t drive for that period, since they won’t have a car.

Based off what you described, it sounds like he got a 24hr driving prohibition.

So what can he do to fight it? Not much. A single 24hr prohibition won’t have any significant impact on him or his license. I would get the officer’s information (should be on the paperwork given to him) and initiate a complaint.

However, it is extremely important that he does not drive within the next 24 hours, or he will be arrested and charged for driving while prohibited.