As a college intern with the Missouri Division of Highway Safety, I was privileged to work with the DRE (Drug Recognition Expert) training program. To understand what a DRE does and why they're important, let's turn to Hollywood...
A few nights ago, Heather Locklear was picked up on suspicion of impaired driving. She was seen driving, weaving, jerky car movements that are all signs of a DWI. Yet, when the first officer arrived on the scene and gave Ms. Locklear a breathalyzer, apparently she passed with flying colors. Yet, according to reports, when he questioned her, she was incoherent and slurring.
When a drunk driver isn't drunk, what do you do?
This is where DREs come in. DRE is a typical traffic officer with specialized training to spot drivers who are impaired by drugs, not alcohol. They're trained to recognize the effects of narcotics, barbiturates, marijuana, hallucinogens, etc. By using scientific methods like heart rate, pupil size, etc., DREs can then charge a person with impaired driving – even if they blow a .000 on the breathalyzer.
Heather Locklear's recent arrest has highlighted the importance of impaired driving...but even if she's innocent, it brings the crime of impaired driving by drugs to the forefront of the public's attention. Drugged driving can be as harmful as drunk driving and we need to treat it as such.
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