While most people probably think of alcohol when they hear “impaired driving,” that’s not always the case.
Officials said four of the past 50 OVI arrests that the Marysville Division of Police made involved a drugs rather than alcohol. Marysville Deputy Police Chief Tony Brooks said more could have involved drugs, but there were only four connected to drug charges.
Brooks said nine times out of 10, the first indication of any sort of intoxicated driving is erratic vehicle movement.
“Whether that’s failure to maintain lanes, driving without headlights after dark is always an indicator,” Brooks said.
Once the car is stopped, different behaviors indicate different substances.
“Your alcohol, you’ll have slurred speech, you’ll usually have at least a moderate odor of an alcoholic beverage,” Brooks said.
Brooks said prescription and illicit drugs have different warning signs.
“The pupils could be really restricted, or really enlarged,” Brooks said.
Different drugs have different ways of affecting drivers. Brooks said heroin has a similar effect as alcohol, but it acts much more quickly.
“You see more of that in the parking lots,” Brooks said. “They’re in there, and they’re passed out behind the wheel.”
Cocaine or meth tends to “pep (a) person up,” according to Brooks. Police have begun seeing methamphetamines in particular come up lately.
“It’s just one of those indicators that you look for,” Brooks said. “It’s 2 a.m. and, you know, this person just seems to be bouncing off the walls.”
Brooks also noted that prescription drugs can impair driving, too.
“Just because a doctor gives it to you does not preclude you from being arrested,” Brooks said.
Those signs, coupled with erratic driving, indicate some sort of drug use. And to pick up on those signs, officers need training. Brooks said the standard field sobriety test training is about a weeklong. When done correctly, a combination of field sobriety tests can evaluate intoxicated drivers with 70 to 80 percent accuracy, according to Brooks.
“Once you have that and you’re comfortable with the standard field sobriety test, you have what’s called the DRE (Drug Recognition Expert),” Brooks said.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) administers the DRE program. Brooks said DREs spend a week at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy, then more training from NHTSA. The training involves a field certification, and students need to maintain an at least 75 percent confirmation rate to pass, in addition to an examination.
“That makes them more of an expert so they can testify,” Brooks said.
Union County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Matt Henry is a DRE, but Union County Sheriff Jamie Patton is lukewarm on the program’s worth to his agency.
“Our sergeant that has this DRE training has completed one actual evaluation,” Patton said. “So his training’s not been actually used to its full capacity as we thought it was going to be used.”
The training process took Henry out of the agency for three weeks in total, which Patton said wasn’t worth it.
“You lose that deputy for an extended period of time that you have to backfill,” Patton said. “I’m still yet to see that there’s a sustainability long-term with potentially continuing the DRE program, at least locally.”
Patton said at first his office didn’t know if it would be able to sustain the program long-term with several people going through the training. Patton said now, his agency is leaning toward a more traditional approach.
“What we’re doing, if there’s suspected impairment, we’re executing a search warrant for blood, and we’re getting actual test results,” Patton said.
Patton said his staff is getting additional training on drug impairment recognition in the Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE). The program is similar to the national DRE program, but is an Ohio initiative out of the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
On the reporting side, Marysville Police are working to change the wording of impaired driving charges.
The Ohio Revised Code provides a blanket that includes anything that may impair driving. The officer decides that a person is under the influence, then a test or evidence confirms what the substance is.
Marysville Police has a charge that reads, “Under the influence of alcohol/drugs.” The charge will soon change to simply, “Operating a vehicle under the influence.”
“I talked to (Police Chief Floyd Golden) and we were both under agreement,” Brooks said.
Brooks said the “alcohol/drugs” wording could have implied drugs were involved, which could get offenders in trouble with employers.
“It’s ultimately in the court record, but it made sense once we talked about it,” Brooks said.