'There are indicators': THP Colonel testifies all 'sober DUI' arrests were valid
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The Tennessee Highway Patrol is pushing back against the controversial “sober DUI” issue that has followed some law enforcement agencies in Tennessee, after an ongoing, two-year FOX 17 News investigation that led to state legislation being passed.
The series of reports also revealed the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had underreported the number of DUI arrests in which drivers tested negative for drugs or alcohol by hundreds since 2017, according to new data released just weeks ago.
The data, now required by state law to be disclosed each year, showed 419 “sober DUI” arrests in 2024. That total includes all law enforcement departments across the state, not just THP. The numbers also revealed 2,547 people have been arrested for DUI in Tennessee since 2017 despite testing negative for alcohol and drugs. That figure is more than three times higher than what was previously reported by officials- 609 arrests from 2017 to 2023. THP had some of the highest "sober DUI" totals, although the agency covers a larger area than most local police departments.
Tennessee Highway Patrol Col. Matt Perry testified before the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee on Wednesday. Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, asked Perry about news reports of people being arrested despite having no drugs or alcohol in their system.
“There’s certainly no quota like some of these articles have pushed,” Perry said. “A trooper’s job is to go out there and arrest every impaired driver, and in cases where people have come back with no blood alcohol or drugs in their system, we review every one of those.
“We have not had one case ... and we have our experts in our department review those ... we have not had one that they said, ‘Yeah, this was somebody that probably should not have been arrested,’” he said. “Every review we’ve done on all these cases, there’s evidence. There are indicators ... field sobriety testing, roadside indicators ... the odor of alcohol, the odor of certain drugs, bloodshot, watery eyes ... slurred speech. We don’t smell alcohol and then go, ‘OK, we’re taking you to jail now.’”
However, the remarks raise the question of how an officer from any agency could report smelling alcohol, or that a person's eyes failed a nystagmus test, as FOX 17 has found in some documents, if ultimately there was no alcohol detected in the person's system.
FOX 17 News obtained a chart from THP showing individual totals for DUI arrests in District 8, sent to troopers from higher-ups, as well as a THP manual dating back to 2019 that requires at least two stops or "contacts" per hour for troopers working certain DUI enforcement shifts. A source within THP tells FOX 17 that "two-contacts per hour" applies to patrolling in general, not just for DUI.
FOX 17’s ongoing investigation into “sober DUI” incidents has revealed the life-altering consequences of these arrests. People have lost jobs, income, the ability to drive, insurance coverage, and their reputations. FOX 17 has also found at least two dozen federal lawsuits filed in Tennessee by drivers arrested for DUI after tests showed no traceable substance in their systems.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which performs the lab testing for THP and many other law enforcement agencies across the state, noted in an email to FOX 17 News that "while some media reports on this topic have stated that results with no alcohol/intoxicants detected mean a driver was 'sober,' that may not inherently be the case. There are various substances that may impair a driver, but for one reason or another, may not be detected through our screening. While alcohol screening and impairment can be considered relatively straightforward, drug toxicology can be incredibly more complex."
We asked TBI to identify the substances not currently tested for, but the agency has not named them, thus far. Often law enforcement declines to reveal their technical logistics or abilities, as not to potentially encourage the public or compromise the safety of officers or integrity of an investigation.
"The only way to reduce fatality rates, to save lives, is more troopers stopping cars and being visible, being present," said Perry. "Our focus is traffic stop heavy, traffic stop oriented. Not tickets. Not arrests. Not anything, just stop cars."
