An OUI field sobriety test typically consists of the “nine-step walk and turn” and the “one-leg stand.”
(Officers may also request the driver to perform the “horizontal gaze nystagmus test” and the portable breath test. But these tests are usually inadmissible at trial and, consequently, of little concern to defendants and their attorneys.)
The acts performed during a field sobriety test are “non testimonial” according to Massachusetts case law.
This means that your constitutional right against self-incrimination (found in the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights) is usually not at risk.
So there’s typically no need for an officer to advise you of your Miranda rights.
[A] motorist who is temporarily detained after being stopped on suspicion of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor is not held in custody, and, as a result, the investigating police officer is not required to furnish Miranda warnings to the motorist before administering field sobriety tests.
Vanhouton v. Commonwealth, 424 Mass. 327, 331 (1997)
Occasionally an officer will ask a driver suspected of OUI to recite the alphabet or count backwards. These verbal tests are also considered “non testimonial” and, in most cases, they do not require a Miranda warning.
It’s rare but, at times, the police may conduct a field sobriety test at the police station. In those circumstances–because the defendant is under arrest–police will likely Mirandize him or her before the field sobriety test is performed.