In New Jersey, a conviction for drunk driving can lead to serious consequences—loss of one’s driving license, a significant fine, and even jail time. Since such a conviction can be adjudicated based on data produced by a machine standing alone, it is imperative that machine-generated data be reliable.

The machine in question is the Alcotest, used in New Jersey since 2000. In 2016, the person within the State Police who was responsible for performing semiannual calibrations of the Alcotest instrument was indicted for falsely certifying that he had performed the required periodic calibration procedures when in fact he had not done so on machines used in five New Jersey counties: Middlesex, Ocean, Somerset, Monmouth and Union. Specifically, he had not used a thermometer that meets the standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to measure the temperature of simulator solutions used to calibrate the Alcotest devices.