SOBRIETY TESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 55, 6 March 1935, Page 15

SOBRIETY TESTS.

NEW METHODS DESIRED.

INQUIRY IN ENGLAND

LONDON, January 27

The present tests of sobriety used by the police are to be stopped shortly by order of the Home Office. An inquiry into their legality and propriety is now going on. There is no statutory authority for the tests. A man arrested on a charge of being drunk in charge of an automobile is not bound to submit to them. But he always does. The test* vary according to the doctor who makes the" examination. But there are some that are generally used.

The defendant is asked to say "truly rural," "constitutionality conditionally,' , "Sister Susie sewing shirts for soldier*," and other equally difficult phases. He is to stand erect, close his eyes, outstretch first his right and then his left arm, and bring his index, finger smartly to the tip of his nose.

He is ordered to walk, with eyes closed, across a room toe to heel; then to stand on one leg and hold the other. Walking on a chalk line is another popular test. A police surgeon in a police court in the metropolitan district recently stated that he applied those tests, and when asked to do the finger to nose test in the box failed. He admitted that normal, sober persons might have difficulty in passing his tests.