Lehigh County Assistant District Attorney Renee Smith spoke at the June 23 Whitehall Township Crime Watch meeting.

Smith, who has been with the district attorney's office for more than 29 years, explained to attendees the steps taken during a DUI arrest.

Lehigh County uses breathalyzer tests, field sobriety tests and blood tests. The county will not do urine tests. Blood tests are used the most because they are accurate and "very hard to challenge," she said.

Smith stated Pennsylvania is an implied consent state.

"Pennsylvania says if you drive on our highways, whether you're from New Jersey, Arizona, wherever, you give Pennsylvania officers permission to ask for a blood or breath test if the officer suspects you are driving under the influence of alcohol," she said.

Being an implied consent state gives more rights to the police officer. If someone is in an accident and is hurt or unconscious and taken to the hospital, "an officer has the right to go to the hospital, sign a waiver stating they suspect that person is under the influence of alcohol or drugs and request a blood sample," Smith said.

A person can refuse to get a blood test, but then his or her license will be suspended for a minimum of one year.

Field sobriety tests can apparently sometimes be misleading. Smith said people with blood-alcohol levels from .08 to .11 typically do worse on field sobriety tests than people with blood-alcohol levels of .20 or higher. The reason is because people with blood-alcohol levels of .20 or higher are often "experienced drinkers" and are able to function better because they're used to it.

Smith explained in Pennsylvania there are three tiers of DUIs.

Tier one includes having a blood-alcohol level of .08 to .099, tier two is .10 to .159 and tier three is .16 and higher.

People suspected of having drugs in their system are automatically considered a tier three.

For a first offense, a blood-alcohol level in tier one will result in probation. Second tier requires at least two days of jail time and tier three requires a minimum of three days.

"Statistics show a person that has been arrested for their first time drunk driving has driven drunk at least 200 times," Smith said.

People typically go to the same bar and have the way home memorized, she said.

Smith said she will receive more DUI cases that occur on St. Patrick's Day and Super Bowl Sunday than on New Year's Eve.

She said this is because people expect to drink on New Year's Eve, so they make plans to stay overnight or have a designated driver.