SFST Manuals
2015 NHTSA SFST Instructor Guide
NHTSA · 2015 · 24.7 MB
A free account is required to download.
Published in 2015, 2015 NHTSA SFST Instructor Guide is a NHTSA's instructor guide — the manual an officer's trainers teach from. It documents the exact standardized procedure an officer must follow for HGN, Walk-and-Turn, and One-Leg Stand. Because it is the government's own source material, it sets the standard a DUI case can be measured against — not a standard the defense invented.
What this document establishes
It sets out the exact standardized procedure an officer must follow for HGN, Walk-and-Turn, and One-Leg Stand. As primary-source material, it lets you compare what actually happened in a case against the written standard, rather than relying on how the procedure is described in court.
How it's used in a DUI defense
Defense attorneys read the SFST manuals line by line against the officer's report and video. The manuals are explicit that the tests are validated only when administered in the prescribed, standardized manner — so if the officer changed the instructions, held the HGN stimulus for the wrong time or distance, scored clues the manual doesn't list, skipped the demonstration, or ran the tests on a slope, in traffic, or in poor footwear, the deviation undercuts the very validity the prosecution relies on.
More sfst manuals
Was your case run by the book?
Upload your police report and our analyzer checks it against manuals like this one — then hands you the specific issues and the motions to file.