For anyone hoping to improve their driving record, staying sober while driving is crucial. But even then, one still has to worry about false DUI-linked arrests, which are, unfortunately, not uncommon. There have been some high-profile examples, too: In early 2025, California state senator Sabrina Cervantes was arrested for alleged drunk driving, but was later cleared after blood tests. A couple even lost custody of their kids over a similar arrest in March 2025. Hawaii police officers have been internally warned for arresting sober drivers for allegedly driving under the influence. But it appears that the problem runs deeper.
Following an investigation by the WSMVthe Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) revealed that it had dramatically undercounted the number of false DUI arrests. The TBI initially claimed there were 609 such cases between 2017 and 2023, but later admitted to the news outlet that the real figure stood at 2,218. As of 2024, the number was 2,547 in the state of Tennessee alone. As per updated information on TBI’s Crime Insight dashboard as of January 11, 2026, there were 1,883 cases of DUI arrests in 2024 where the individuals had neither alcohol nor drugs in their bloodstream.
The state has not shared data for 2025, but officials made 20,959 DUI arrests in 2024, which is 6% higher than the previous year. Officials told News3Live that there are many things beyond alcohol and drugs that can lead to intoxication, and that they are flushed out by the time blood tests are administered. Former patrol agents, however, claim that such arrests are linked to internal quotas and work pressure. But the issue is not limited to Tennessee. In Colorado and Hawaii, for instance, lawsuits have been filed over wrongful DUI arrests.
The trouble with DUI arrests
In 2023, the City of Loveland, Colorado, paid a $400,000 settlement to a man wrongly accused of DUI. The lawsuit claimed that the local police department enabled a culture where DUI arrests were seen as a competition. In 2022, a Fort Collins, Colorado, police officer resigned due to involvement in false DUI arrests, which subsequently triggered a lawsuit against the Fort Collins Police Services in 2023. Lowell Russell, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, also took action, demanding more accountability and transparency in the DUI arrest process.
The reliability of the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs) has also been questioned. “SFSTs have some usefulness in determining probable cause, but they have greatly been oversold by the police and NHTSA as a means to determine impairment or a BAC (blood alcohol content) level,” says a critique of the sobriety tests by the Oklahoma Bar Association. John Hunsucker, author and DUI defense expert, also claimed that DUI tests were rarely administered properly.
The scientific reliability of the sobriety tests has also been questioned. “SFST may only measure limited and individual behaviourally translatable facets of cognitive functioning, rather than overall measures of cognitive performance,” says a research paper published in Accident Analysis & Prevention. Another paper published in JAMA Psychiatry notes that SFTS may not be adequate to identify cognitive impairment linked to cannabis (THC) consumption while driving. Legal experts also suggest that hearing difficulties, diseases affecting bone and muscle activity, and injuries can lead to failures on the Walk and Turn (WAT) test and the One Leg Stand (OLS) tests, which are part of sobriety tests.
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