How police detect impaired drivers
Police across the province use blend of skills, technology to catch drunk, stoned drivers
Technology can be a great thing for police officers in a number of ways.
Forensic identification has seen a continually evolving range of tools which have both aided police in their role as investigators and helped to solidify cases against perpetrators.
Police monitoring the province's streets and highways have their own tools at their disposal, enabling them to identify and charge impaired drivers.
But, say police, as with forensic identification, technology is only effective in combination with the training and skills of the officers using it.
“You need to be able to do an investigation without a tool,” said Const. Patrick Foster, a collision reconstructionist with Saskatoon Police Service and a nineyear member of the Traffic Unit. “(Some) people either rely on tools too heavily or not at all. It's just a balance, I would say.”
That said, the tools available to police in investigating impaired driving are highly beneficial.
“If we want to keep our roads safe, then we have to keep going ahead with technology, we have to keep improving our skills, we have to keep training and having our officers operate at that high level to be able to detect these (incidents),” said Cpl. Andree Sieber with Regina Police Service's Traffic Safety Unit. “Really, it's for everybody. Everybody uses the roads and it's helping families to get home safely.”
Police enter into impaired driving investigations one of two ways: a citizen calling in to report or by police observing it themselves.
Police look for a range of driving behaviours when determining whether to pull someone over. A driver might be going too fast or too slow, they've blown a stop sign or light or they're weaving, among other signs.
Once police have observed long enough to suspect a possible impairment, they'll pull over a vehicle, then turn their observations to the driver. Police look for a wide range of signs and symptoms of impairment, such as odour in the case of alcohol or cannabis, the appearance of the eyes, the way a person speaks and their ability to focus and complete simple tasks like handing over a driver's licence.
Should adequate signs and symptoms be present, police may then take the next step — which is where technology comes in. Police have tools available roadside, including an approved screening device (ASD) for alcohol that shows a pass or fail. A failure helps to provide police with reasonable grounds needed to take the driver to the police station for further testing.
Earlier this year, police in Regina and Saskatoon began using a new roadside device called SoToxa, which tests for cannabis. The suspected driver swabs the inside of his or her mouth, and the sample is fed into the device for a reading of pass or fail.
Sotoxa registers a positive when a person has 25 nanograms or higher of THC in their oral fluid. The legal limit is five — leaving little room for a mistaken positive.
“There's not really any arguing that result,” said Sieber.
Both Sieber and Foster said their departments use Sotoxa fairly regularly and that it has proven useful. In Regina, it was used 29 times between Feb. 13 and Nov. 1, with 24 of those occasions leading to positive results — and subsequently, charges and suspensions. It's held up well, typically kept and administered inside police vehicles so it stays warm in harsh weather.
Prior to Sotoxa, police relied on a machine called the Dräger, but given its size, it was kept at Regina police headquarters for use in testing. Foster said Saskatoon police have a different setup — a mobile alcohol and drug testing van that allows them to transport the Dräger to locations as needed.
The van is used for projects involving the use of check stops, Foster said.
In addition to the roadside ASDS, police rely on their own training, sometimes opting to carry out a field sobriety test. These involve having drivers attempt to walk a straight line or stand on one leg, among other tests.
“Based on those tests that we do with them, (it) will give us the grounds to either give them a breath demand or a drug recognition evaluation demand,” Sieber said.
Sieber is also trained as a drug recognition expert (DRE), one of a number within the RPS and the SPS. DRES are trained to assess individuals to determine whether they're impaired by a drug — helpful given roadside screening devices currently test solely for cannabis and alcohol and the in-station Breathalyzer solely for alcohol.
Sieber said based on a DRE assessment, a urine sample can be demanded to determine what type of drug is in the driver's system. In certain cases, drivers can be taken to hospital for a blood screen, but Sieber said that isn't done often.
Sieber and Foster said technology, skills and training go hand in hand in taking impaired drivers off the road. Without ensuring officers are properly establishing the necessary grounds to continue the investigation, the results from the various tools can be tossed out of court.
The officers agree investigating impaired driving — and doing it well — are crucial in the continuing battle against the province's historically high rates of impaired driving.
“In Saskatoon, we have an average of seven fatal crashes a year,” Foster said. “(In) both serious injury and fatal crashes, two-thirds of them involve impairment. That's alarming.”
“I really hope that people realize it's not just about them and about them being able to drive home,” Sieber said. “It's about the safety of everybody.”