Nichols completes impaired driving courses
Good news for a local officer serving in the Polk School District’s campus police: he now has additional training.
The Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth announced that Officer Matt Nichols completed a pair of courses in recent weeks to enable him to spot and enforce laws around driving under the influence. Included in that training was a course for their DUI Dectection and Standardization Field Sobriety Testing, along with the Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement course.
Both are taught by the Georgia Police Academy Division of the GPSTC.
The DUI course includes the observation techniques involved in recognizing when a driver may be operating a vehicle under the influence of intoxicants. Patterns of driver behavior and the more common driving errors committed by drivers under the influence are also identified in training.
Students from departments across the state also are taught safe methods for stopping and approaching a driver suspected of being under the influence, as well as detection techniques for determining whether a driver is under the influence.
Emphasis is placed on the proper manner in which to administer field sobriety tests, and practical exercises were carried out during the course. The tests taught meet national and international standards, according to a release from the GPSTC.
Training in the Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement course is designed to enhance law enforcement’s ability to recognize the role of traffic enforcement and its relationship to highway safety, along with understanding the various aspects of what happens when someone is driving while impaired on various substances.
“A strong emphasis is placed on the proper adminstration of the NHTSA SFST battery and interpretation of the results,” a release from the GPSTC stated.
Funding for both programs is provided by the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
Funding for the program was provided by the State of Georgia’s Governor’s OFfice of Highway Safety.