Officers heading to Ottawa for training on new roadside drug-testing device

With the legalization of marijuana just three weeks away, select members of the Regina Police Service will be heading to Ottawa for training on how to use a roadside drugtesting device known as the Drager Drugtest 5000.

“The instrument has been approved federally and we know that through Public Safety Canada instruments have been purchased for different police organizations,” including one for the RPS, said Chief Evan Bray at the Board of Police Commissioners meeting Wednesday morning.

The training, which is also being funded by Public Safety Canada, will take place in Ottawa before legalization, said Bray. The officers in attendance will then come back to Regina and instruct front-line members on the use of the device.

“There’s benefits that come with using the instrument and there’s some challenges that have yet to be worked out,” he said. “One of the biggest ones … is temperature. The machine is very temperature-sensitive and we live in Saskatchewan. That’s going to be something, that through the winter months … we will try and manage.”

With only one device allocated to the RPS at this time, Bray said they are still working out the details on how it will be utilized. Options include leaving it at police headquarters to be requested as needed, officers signing it out to take on patrol or using it as part of traffic-stop projects.

“There’s lots of possibilities,” said Bray, adding they will likely start off the use of the machine with a small group of officers like the traffic safety unit, and then over time roll it out to front-line officers.

But he emphasized it is not the panacea for roadside drug detection.

“I know it’s used in other countries, but the reality is, we’re much more equipped in terms of drugrecognition experts that we have within the police service,” he said.

The RPS has 11 drug-recognition experts who are trained to detect drug impairment and are qualified to provide evidence in court, and there are plans to train more in the next couple years.

“I would say they are much more accessible to our officers if they need evidence of impairment by drug, than perhaps this instrument we have,” he said.

Bray also speculated that in the future, it’s likely there will be more options for roadside drug testing than there are now, adding that at the moment they don’t know how effective or practical the current option is for the RPS.

“A year from now, things could look a lot different,” he said. “It’s like any kind of technology, it doesn’t take long before it’s replicated, perfected, improved upon, and I think this will be the case with this as well.”