Problems with the Intoxilyzer 8000 and Power Outages

The FDLE website has a section on its website where it sporadically adds “Miscellaneous and Correspondence” on different Intoxilyzer 8000 machines.

Criminal defense attorneys rarely get notice when the machines suffer from serious malfunctions. Instead, the attorneys are instructed by the State Attorney’s Office to sift through the poorly organized FDLE website to find information on each Intoxilyzer. The search often turns up some interesting problems with the Intoxilyzer 8000 machines in Florida.

The documents that show major failures with the instruments are often buried in the miscellaneous correspondence section.

For example, read this miscellaneous correspondence on the Intoxilyzer 8000, Serial Number 80-000792 maintained by the St. Lucie Sheriff’s Office.

This e-mail really shows how creative the Agency inspectors have to be to skirt the rules and keep the instruments online. I cut and paste David Snow’s E-Mail on Intoxilyzer Problems below:


Shanahan, Jake


From: David Snow <SnowD@stluciesheriff.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2014 3:10 PM
To: Shanahan, Jake
Subject: Intoxilyzer Staus [sic]

Jake [Shanahan, FDLE Department Inspector],

I attempted to do inspections yesterday on the 3 instruments. A bad simulator running the interferent was discovered too late. At first I thought it was just a loose hose or loose cap. A power outage occurred at the jail and I ran out of time, as I was due in court. I went back today to re-run inspections. 80-00788 and 80-00792 inspected fine and 80-00794 kept running into ambient and purge fails, resulting in me having to fail the instrument.

A cord came loose from 792 causing it to lose power and NOT save the inspection. I ran out of time to re-inspect it today. I don’t know if I will get time again to get another inspection in before the end of the month, as I am off until Tuesday (April 1st). 792 is a dormant instrument and is never used. Deputy Gordineer (alternative [Agency Inspector]) is on light duty, but I will need to see if he can inspect 792 on Monday. I will upload 788 and 794 on Tuesday.

Any thoughts on the failure in reference to 794? I moved the instrument to try to re-test it, FYI, with same results.

I would like to try to two [sic] trim down to 2 instruments and was wondering how I could put 1 out of service, to be brought back in service if necessary?

I also need more mouth alcohol and interferent solutions for testing.

If I didn’t have short hair, I would be pulling it out right now.

Thanks for any help on this.

Dave [David Snow, Agency Inspector for St Lucie Sheriff’s Office]


A power outage during an inspection is one of the few ways to make sure that all data from a failed inspection is NOT saved. No judge, prosecutor or defense attorney will ever see the data.

Since the agency inspector only gets to re-test once before being required to remove the Intoxilyzer 8000 from service, a convenient power failure can save the day.

If the Intoxilyzer 8000 fails an inspection 10 times in a row and the Agency Inspector pulls the plug each time, then no data would be left except for the 10 unexplained log in records. [A least one FDLE Department Inspector has been fired for teaching Agency Inspectors this little trick for destroying evidence of a failed inspection.]

This e-mail discusses two more mysterious power outages on the Intoxilyzer 8000 with Serial Number 80-000794. The first power outage occurred “at the jail.” The second time the instrument lost power during an inspection occurred the very next day. This time the power outage occurred when the “cord came loose… causing it to lose power.”

A cynical person might think that short hair is not the only thing this Agency Inspector is pulling out.


Read more about freak power outages during agency inspections – Falling Surge Protectors in Hillsborough County.

Read how one FDLE Department Inspector uses her cell phone and RFI to manipulate the Intoxilyzer 8000 instead of pulling the plug.

Read more about using the excuse that “the instrument inspection did not comply due to the fact that a sample was not provided during the allotted time necessary for this test to take place” when the attempted power outage failed.

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