FIELD EVALUATION OF THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT DRUG DETECTION PROGRAM

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has developed a drug recognition program designed to provide trained officers the ability to detect drug-impaired drivers and to identify the responsible drug class (e.g., stimulant, depressant, etc.). As part of a research effort designed to validate the LAPD drug recognition program, a field study in which police officers employed the drug recognition procedure with real suspects under field conditions was recently completed. In the study, blood samples were obtained from 86% of the suspects believed to be under the influence of drugs. No blood samples were obtained from suspects judged by the police officers to not be under the influence of drugs. The important results showed that: (1) When the police officers claimed drugs other than alcohol were present they were almost always detected in the suspect's blood (94% of the time); (2) The police officers were able to correctly identify at least one drug other than alcohol in 87% of the suspects evaluated in this study - most of these suspects had used multiple drugs (other than alcohol); and (3) When the drug recognition experts (DREs) identified a suspect as impaired by a specific drug, the drug was detected in the suspect's blood 79% of the time.

• Corporate Authors:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Compton, R P
• Publication Date: 1986-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 53 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Detectors; Drug tests; Drug use; Drugs; Evaluation; Field studies; Impaired drivers; Law enforcement
• Uncontrolled Terms: Drug control
• Old TRIS Terms: Drug recognition experts; Los angeles police department
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00732397
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-807 012, Technical Report
• Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Feb 14 1997 12:00AM