Chemical Tests

Preliminary Alcohol Screening Test – “PAS Test”:
When you get stopped and/or arrested for Driving under the Influence in Ventura County, most law enforcement officers put quite a bit of pressure on you to give a breath sample in an effort to determine your alcohol level. The first of these breath tests is typically a Preliminary Alcohol Screening test, also known as a PAS test. In Ventura County DUI investigations, the PAS test is usually given after the Field Sobriety Tests, or FSTs, are performed. Unless you are under 21, the PAS test is 100% voluntary. However, the officers are very adept at getting you to blow into the machine by telling you “Now there is one more test I’d like you to do. If you blow into this machine, and it comes back below a .08%, I’ll let you go without being arrested.” Most people at this point are of course nervous and scared, and want to cooperate with the officers, and so they blow into the machine. Unfortunately, most of the time the PAS machine reads higher than a .08%, and the person is then arrested. There are two PAS devices that are used in Ventura County DUI investigations, and they are very similar. First is the Alco-Sensor IV, which is a small hand held device that the officers carry around in their patrol vehicles in a small plastic black box. The Alco-Sensor IV does not have a printer, but does have internal memory that stores the date and time of the breath test. The memory can be downloaded and printed back at the stations or at the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Crime Lab. Second is the Alco-Sensor IV XL, which is a very similar device, with the key difference being that this device can be attached directly to a printer and used as an evidential breath test device.