Pubdate: Thu, 13 Jun 2013
Source: Vail Daily (CO)
Copyright: 2013 Vail Daily
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wo3Ts7AI
Website: http://www.vaildaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3233
Author: Randy Wyrick

HOW COPS SPOT DRUGGED DRIVERS

EAGLE COUNTY - While two dozen police officers were downstairs in an
Avon hotel learning drug recognition techniques, a doctor was upstairs
performing medical marijuana exams and selling cards.

The irony was lost on no one, especially the 24 officers from around
state working through Drug Recognition Expert training.

It was also lost on no one that this was the first Drug Recognition
Expert training since Colorado voters legalized marijuana.

"It has always been relevant, and it's more relevant now that Colorado
voters legalized recreational marijuana," said Bob Ticer, Avon police
chief and one of the instructors.

The local officers join 183 other Drug Recognition Experts in
Colorado, trained to recognize impairment in drivers and what is
impairing them, narcotics as well as alcohol. By the time they
graduated Thursday afternoon, officers could recognize the effects of
seven drug categories, and how people react under the influence of
those drugs. Officers also learned to administer evaluations and
complete the reporting.

"It gives officers training about drugs they'll be encountering, and
the process to identify those drugs," Ticer said. "It's an
international program that standardizes this everywhere."

Ticer went through the training in 1992. He said the basics haven't
changed much.

"We were talking about the same things then that we are now. The
difference is that we have another legal substance to deal with,"
Ticer said. "However, the substance we still combat the most is the
most legal - alcohol."

>From 2010 to 2011, Colorado saw a 15 percent increase in drivers of
fatal crashes who tested positive for drugs, said Glenn Davis, the
Department of Transportation's highway safety manager and former Drug
Recognition Expert. The Department of Transportation picked up the tab
for the training, with support from the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration.

LAPD started it

Drug Recognition Expert training originated with the Los Angeles
Police Department in the early 1970's when officers noticed that many
people arrested for impaired driving had low or zero blood alcohol
concentrations. The officers suspected that the motorists were under
the influence of drugs, but didn't know how to prove it.

Two LAPD sergeants partnered with medical doctors, research
psychologists and other medical professionals to develop the 12-step
evaluation of an impaired motorist's physical, mental and medical condition.

"Officers can already tell if someone is impaired. With this training
they can tell with very high accuracy what substance motorists are
influenced by," Davis said.

Different drugs create different symptoms, said Craig Simpson, a Drug
Recognition Expert instructor in Avon for this session.

"Can the driver focus? Can he or she split their focus? Is he giggling
during a traffic stop? Juries have to be convinced of what it means to
be impaired, and that impaired drivers are dangerous," Simpson said.

"No one is arrested for having drugs in their system. People are
arrested based on their behaviors," Davis said.

If you're pulled over and the officer thinks you're impaired, you'll
likely get to go to the police station or some other location and take
a different set of tests. They'll determine if you're impaired, on
what and how much.

Davis said the Department of Transportation's goal is to have 300 Drug
Recognition Experts in Colorado by 2015.
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MAP posted-by: Matt