The interlock device is what you can expect to have installed on your car. The device prevents you from starting your vehicle until you have successfully blown and no alcohol was detected. They have the legal limit set, so if the legal limit is .08, as long as you blow under that, you can start your vehicle with a warning saying alcohol was detected. However, if you still haven’t gone to court, this will not go over well with the judge if alcohol is detected at all. If you have been convicted, ANY alcohol detected will be a violation of your probation because if convicted, you are not allowed to drink during the probation time. So do yourself a big favor and stay away from alcohol until everything is behind you.
Let me explain why not drinking is the way to go. Sure, you can work the system and know when you could have some drinks and not get caught, but the stress level is through the roof. You don’t know if you will be surprise tested and most importantly, they can detect alcohol in your urine up to 80 hours after your last drink. That’s about 3.5 days after you drink. You might think you have a 5-day window where you know you can drink and not be tested, but, they can surprise test you anytime they want. Those 3.5 days will be extremely stressful not knowing if you are going to get a surprise call or text to go in for a UA (urine analysis). If your PO (probation officer) suspects you might be drinking, you can expect surprise tests. And trust me, POs are very smart at knowing if someone might be drinking. They watch how you walk, how you look, how you speak … they’re trained on how to tell. If your PO has been doing it for a long time, they have seen and heard every excuse in the book, so don’t even try to make excuses for yourself. I go into more detail on the probation page about all of this.
The IID (ignition interlock device) is an extremely sensitive device. When you have it installed, they will explain that many things can give a false positive. Make sure you read and understand all of this information. From your toothpaste to foods you eat, medicines … you have to know what to ingest and what not to. On my 1st DWI, I woke up with a stuffy nose and had to take my wife to the hospital for surgery. Rather than deal with a stuffy nose at the hospital, I did some Afrin nose spray so I could breathe. I went straight to my vehicle and blew and it detected alcohol. I was confused and thought it was a mistake. Once my PO received my logs, she saw it and called me in. I immediately called the IID company and discussed with them and they determined that Afrin has a compound that when ingested, breaks down as alcohol in your body. Luckily, that helped my situation because any alcohol is a violation and after she spoke with the IID company, she understood. It is still your responsibility to know everything you put into your body, so I was given a violation and punishment because you are told it is your responsibility, so it falls on you even if it is a false positive.
Common things you could ingest and get a false positive are high-sugar foods, some fruits and fruity drinks, energy drinks, mouthwash, vanilla extract, kombucha drinks, vinegar, some spicy foods, breath spray, just to name a few well-known items. I would often make sure at restaurants the food I ordered wasn’t cooked with wine or beer just to be on the safe side. The alcohol should cook out, but no reason to take a risk because remember, it’s your responsibility to know. Make it a habit to read labels to make sure there are no traces of alcohol. It’s a pain, but once you get in the habit, it’s just like having a food allergy you have to be wary of.
Also, make sure you don’t try to trick the device. Most come with cameras these days and it will snap a photo of you when you start blowing and when you finish. Those images are downloaded with your report so if there is an issue, you can’t say “It wasn’t me”. And on the flip side, if someone else blows in your device and fails it, you have the images to prove it was not you. If people were drinking around my vehicle, I would often unplug the device and hide it so no one could get in and try to blow in it. You have to do everything in your power to protect yourself while on probation because it’s your ass on the line.
The cost of having an interlock device is not cheap. You have the initial installation cost which is $125-150, then you have to go every month and have it “calibrated”. They download the log and all pictures, as well as make sure it is fine-tuned to properly detect your breath. Each calibration runs around $75 in my case. Some may be more or less. Most places will assign a day to come into one of their locations and have it done with grace days before and after before it locks you out. If you miss your window of time, it will lock you out and when that happens, having your vehicle towed in is probably going to be required. Some IIDs will allow you to purchase an unlock code from them to get your car started. In my county, they require you to use one specific company, but it varies from state to state, county to county.
When you are required to have an IID installed, you are not allowed to drive a car without one. If they catch you driving a vehicle without one, your probation will be violated. They track the miles driven days you blow in your device to make sure you are driving your vehicle. It’s a way for them to make sure you are keeping things clean while on probation. It may seem like driving a vehicle without it is a breeze, but you never know when you might be stopped or if you’re in an accident and they check your ID. Be smart.
The last thing about the IID is to never tamper with it. Don’t try to bypass or do anything to the device or wires. Tampering comes with an additional charge and possibly jail. It’s not worth the risk because it’s easy for them to know.