The Finger Count

The finger count is a coordination and counting task. You hold a hand out, touch your thumb to the tip of each finger in turn, and count out loud as you go, often counting up to four and then back down, repeating until the officer tells you to stop. The officer watches whether your taps and your count stay in step and whether you can reverse on command. It is not a standardized exercise, and under State v. Meador, 674 So. 2d 826 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996), it is only the officer’s lay observation.

As with the other non-standardized exercises, there is no validation study behind it, no official list of clues, and no agreed scoring. The officer decides by feel whether you did well, which is not how a reliable test works.

A coordination and sequencing task with no NHTSA validation and no official scoring. It measures attention and dexterity as much as anything to do with alcohol.

It tests dexterity and attention, not just alcohol

Touching thumb to fingertips while counting and then reversing is an unusual task that draws on fine motor control, concentration, and the ability to follow an odd instruction the first time you hear it, all while a stranger watches you at the side of a road. Cold hands, arthritis, age, nerves, a language difference, and any number of medical issues affect performance on their own. A stumble in the sequence says little about a blood alcohol level.

Graded by impression

Because there is no standardized way to give or score the finger count, the result is whatever the officer makes of it. That makes it one of the easier exercises to take apart, because there is no validated benchmark the officer can point to. In your case I show the jury that this was a brief, unscientific task judged by the same officer who already suspected you.

There is no baseline for your hands

The trouble with grading how someone touches their fingers together is that people are wildly different at it stone-cold sober. Some are quick and smooth, some are clumsy on their best day, and the officer has no idea which one you are, because there is no baseline for your hands and no standard for what a passing performance even looks like. Cold weather stiffens fingers, arthritis and old injuries change how they move, nerves make anyone fumble, and none of that has anything to do with alcohol. Add a counting sequence on top, up and back down under pressure, and a miscount becomes another “clue” for something that is really just a hard little task done badly by a nervous person in the dark.

There is also an admission in NHTSA’s own materials that fits this exercise closely. The training concedes that a test which is difficult for a sober person to perform has little or no evidentiary value, and a fine-motor task with a counting sequence, done cold and nervous on a shoulder, is exactly that kind of task, so the government’s own standard says a fumble here should carry little weight.

Why the finger count carries so little weight

The deeper point is a legal one. Florida treats a coordination task like the finger count as a lay observation of impairment rather than as science. In State v. Meador, the court allowed an officer to describe what he saw a driver do, because a juror can judge ordinary coordination without expert help, and the same court found there is no reliable numerical correlation between roadside performance and impairment. That distinction matters at trial, because it means the State should not be allowed to tell your jury that you failed the finger count or scored points on it, since those words borrow the authority of a real test that the finger count never had.

As an NHTSA field sobriety instructor I can show the jury the line between the three exercises the agency studied and the extras an officer adds at the roadside, and the finger count sits on the wrong side of that line. There is no validation study to cite, no agreed clue list, and no error rate, so the officer is left grading by impression. When the body camera is available I compare what the video shows against what the report claims, because the two often do not match, and a gap there usually does more for the defense than any argument about the task itself.

When the officer grades your hands, my first question is simple: compared to what? There is no record of how you count or move your fingers on an ordinary day, so there is nothing to measure the roadside against. I bring in the cold, the nerves, any injury or condition you have, and the plain fact that this exercise has no validated scoring at all, and I make the State admit that an officer’s impression of a fidgety hand is not a measurement of anything.

Questions About the Finger Count

What is the finger count test?

You touch your thumb to the tip of each finger in order while counting out loud, often one to four and then back, repeating until told to stop. The officer watches your coordination, your counting, and whether you can reverse on command.

Is the finger count standardized?

No. It is not one of the three NHTSA validated exercises. There is no validation study, no official clue list, and no scoring standard, so the officer is grading by impression.

What does it really test?

Fine motor coordination, attention, and the ability to follow an unusual instruction under stress. Dexterity, nerves, cold hands, age, and medical conditions all affect it independently of alcohol.

Does Florida allow it?

Under State v. Meador it comes in only as the officer's lay observation of how you performed, not as a scientific test, and the officer should not present it as a pass-fail score.

Can it be challenged?

Yes. With no validated procedure or scoring, the officer is reporting a personal impression of a brief task. We show the jury there is no science behind it and many ordinary reasons a sober person stumbles.

Related: the non-standardized overview, alphabet and counting, how clues are scored, administration errors, and the field sobriety overview.

Why is the finger count unreliable?

Because people vary a lot at it sober, and there is no baseline for your hands and no standardized scoring. Cold, arthritis, injuries, age, and nerves all disrupt the same movements the officer watches, so a fumble or a miscount reflects the task and the conditions, not necessarily alcohol.

This page is general information, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Field sobriety exercises in Florida are governed by case law and by section 316.193, Florida Statutes. Procedures and rules change, and every case turns on its own facts. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.