Michele Fields

About the author: Michele Fields is general counsel for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by auto insurers for the purpose of reducing highway crash deaths, injuries, and property losses.

Passive alcohol sensors (PAS) are devices incorporated into standard police flashlights that measure the approximate amount of alcohol in a person's system. Police officers working at sobriety checkpoints or making traffic stops need only hold the PAS device six to eight inches from a driver while the driver is speaking to determine whether that person has been drinking. Because up to half of all drunk drivers stopped at sobriety checkpoints go undetected, instituting PAS devices as standard police procedure would result in the detection of more drunk drivers. The use of these sensors does...