Field sobriety exercises — voluntariness · Florida
Are field sobriety exercises voluntary in Florida?
With Sabrina Jadunandan, Orlando DUI defense attorneyDuration 0:58Reviewed 2026-08-07
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Are field sobriety exercises voluntary in Florida?
Yes. Field sobriety exercises are a battery of tasks officers use during a DUI investigation to look for signs of impairment, and in Florida they are voluntary. Sabrina points out what officers rarely volunteer: the exercises are designed to divide your attention, and many people perform poorly for reasons that have nothing to do with alcohol or drugs. Whatever your performance, the state will use it to build a case, so you may decline.
What this video covers
- What the exercise battery is for
- Why the exercises divide attention
- Non-impairment reasons for poor performance
Full transcript
What's going on everyone? It's Sabrina the DUI Gyal and I just wanted to take a minute to talk about field sobriety exercises or FSEs. Now, FSEs are a battery of exercises that law enforcement uses in a DUI investigation to determine possible impairment. And what they won't tell you is that those exercises are 100% voluntary. The exercises themselves are designed to divide your attention because driving divides your attention. But there's a lot of reasons why somebody may not perform well in FSEs that have nothing to do with impairment. But at the end of the day, if you do FSEs, the state will 100% use your performance to prove a case against you and the officers will use your performance to 100% build up a case to arrest you. So when they ask you, do you want to submit to field sobriety? You can say no, because at the end of the day, they are 100% voluntary.
Florida law and sources
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