Don’t drive high

The RCMP is spearheading new changes to police officer training to keep more drug-impaired drivers off Canada's roads.

Preparations for the changes began last spring, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his plan to legalize recreational marijuana. Since then, the RCMP has collaborated with police agencies across the country to develop new training courses, and update many others.

"Impaired driving is a significant priority for the RCMP, it remains one of the leading causes of criminal death in Canada," says Cpl. Mark Skinner, an instructor in the Police Driving Unit at Depot, the RCMP's training academy. "It's a very needless, preventable crime and I expect we'll see more of it in the years to come."

The updates to police training come as two major legislations have made their way through Parliament. The first law legalizes marijuana and the second implements new impaired driving laws.

The RCMP has been paying close attention to the second law in particular, which introduces three new impaired-driving offences. It further allows police officers who have reasonable grounds to believe that the driver has been or is operating a motor vehicle (conveyance) while their ability is impaired by drugs to submit a blood sample for testing.

The law also outlines regulations for an oral fluid device, which can test for the presence of drugs in a saliva sample.In response to the changes, the RCMP has created four new courses for police officers, and updated one other.

"We want to prepare our officers as best as possible for when these changes happen," says Cpl. Dave Botham, one of the RCMP's leading experts on drug-impaired driving. "It's all about giving police training, experience and knowledge."

Sobriety testing

The RCMP currently has two major courses that teach officers how to detect drivers who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs: Standard Field Sobriety Tests (SFST) training and Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) training. They are both international training standards that the RCMP has adopted.

Cst. Ryan Wilson, an RCMP officer in Amherst, N.S., took SFST and DRE training this year. He says both courses are extremely useful for any officer doing roadside stops.

"We often get in the mindset that impaired only means alcohol, but impairment can also be any number of drugs," he says. "Before I was trained, I probably let a lot of people go. I didn't know what I was looking for."

While any police officer can arrest an impaired driver with reasonable grounds, SFST and DRE training can help officers better identify the signs of impairment.

"They build on the foundation officers already have," says Skinner, who's also a DRE and SFST course instructor. "The more tools and knowledge an officer has, the better chance they have of recognizing something suspicious."

Under the 2008 Criminal Code, if an officer suspects a driver may be impaired by drugs, they can ask the driver to take part in a series of physical co-ordination tests — the SFST.

Police are trained to administer the SFST in a four-day course. The course teaches officers how to identify impaired driving, how drugs and alcohol affect the body and what the different stages of an impaired driving investigation are.

"We talk about how some of the indicators of intoxication are basic things that an officer may not have considered before," says Skinner. "Swerving, turning wide, and forgetting to turn headlights on are all major indicators."

Officers also learn how to conduct three major sobriety tests on drivers: an eye-tracking test called the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the walk-and-turn test and the one-leg-stand test. The culmination of these tests can help an officer decide if a driver is impaired by drugs and/or alcohol.

If a driver performs the SFST tests poorly, the officer may arrest the driver and take them to a police station to perform a breath test for alcohol impairment, or a DRE evaluation for drug impairment. If a DRE forms the opinion that the driver is impaired by drugs, they can order the driver to submit a blood or urine sample.

DRE training is more extensive than SFST training. The 10-day course teaches officers a 12-step method to determine not only drug impairment, but what specific category of drug an individual is likely impaired by. Officers learn about anatomy and physiology, the effects of different drugs, and how to prepare for court.

As part of DRE training, officers must also complete a practical component. To pass training, they must conduct at least 12 DRE evaluations under the supervision of a trained DRE instructor, with a 75 per cent success rate. They must also pass an exam before earning their certification.

Unprecedented changes

With the new laws, police agencies needed more than just SFST and DRE training for their officers. While DRE training is not changing, there are updates and add-ons to the SFST course.

Although many of these updates are either fully developed or well underway, Geneviève Tremblay, director of the RCMP's Learning and Development Services, says creating courses before legislation was finalized was a challenge.

"It's unprecedented, we've never had to do this before," she says. "It's like building a plane and flying it at the same time."

To identify what additional training was necessary, the RCMP collaborated with Public Safety Canada, Justice Canada and subject matter experts at the Ontario Provincial Police, Winnipeg Police Service, Regina Police Service, École nationale de police du Québec, and select Crown counsels from across Canada.

They determined that several new courses were necessary, including an update to the drug-impaired driving segment of SFST training, an in-person and online refresher course for those officers who are already SFST-certified, a basic knowledge course on drug-impaired driving, and a new course to certify officers on using oral fluid devices.

"The new courses fill gaps," says Tremblay. "They're imparting knowledge to police officers so they can do their job more effectively."

The courses began their rollout to police officers this spring.

Training courses

The first change to training is an update to the drug-impaired driving segment of SFST training, available to all officers enrolling in the SFST course from now on. The update places greater emphasis on the signs and behaviours of drug-impairment, and what drug paraphernalia may look like during a roadside stop. It's more practical and less theoretical than before, and takes eight hours to complete, in person.

"We're focusing more on cannabis impairment and what signs are commonly seen compared to alcohol impairment," says Skinner. "For example, with cannabis, an officer could note that the eyes are red, pupils dilated and the person has difficulty focusing or concentrating."

To keep officers up to date beyond SFST and DRE training, the RCMP has developed four new training courses.

The first and second new training options are for officers who are already SFST-certified. Two new review courses — one two-hour online course, and one four-hour in-person course — refresh an officer's knowledge on how to properly carry out the SFST tests.

"It's for officers who don't have the confidence or don't remember everything they learned during their initial certification," says Tremblay. "The two versions will give police services across the country more flexibility when it comes to delivering the course, and accounts for their respective realities and needs."

Tremblay says the online version makes the course more accessible because it can reach a greater audience. It also gives officers the option to reference course material in the future.

The third new training option is a basic knowledge online course for all police officers — whether they have previous impaired driving training or not. It's currently in development and will be approximately two hours long.

"It explains what to look for, when to call for backup or assistance and how to formulate grounds and suspicion," says Botham. "The more information you give officers, the better we're going to be able to identify these drivers."

The fourth new training component is a course for a new oral fluid screening device, which will be chosen and introduced later this year. The course is still under development.

"Our goal is to increase the use of SFST and DRE tests by having more officers equipped to carry them out," says Tremblay. "Providing these additional training opportunities will give police officers the ability to use these tests as required on the roadside."

For Wilson, the newly certified SFST and DRE officer in Nova Scotia, the training has been invaluable.

"I gained not only confidence, but the knowledge and information that makes me ask, 'is there more to what I'm seeing?' every time I pull someone over," he says. "If we have more trained members, we can get more impaired drivers off the roads and save lives."

The same enforcement

Although changes are happening, Botham emphasizes that the process for nabbing impaired drivers remains the same.

"It's still good-old-fashioned police work," he says. "Recognize the signs you see, and do something about it."

Botham says the steps police follow will be the same as before — from stopping a vehicle and recognizing the signs of impairment to obtaining reasonable grounds, followed by making an arrest and bringing them to a breath test or DRE test — or an oral fluids test or blood draw under the new laws.

The new courses simply provide more police officers with more knowledge on how to safely identify and charge impaired drivers.

"If you're impaired, don't drive. That's the main message we want to get across," says Botham. "Cannabis and other drugs impair a person's ability to drive a motor vehicle, just like alcohol."