FORT WAYNE – On any weekend, 11 percent of daytime drivers will have illegal or prescription medication – or both – in their systems. When the night falls, that number jumps to 14.4 percent.

That’s according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which conducted a survey in 2007 in which drivers throughout the country were stopped, questioned and in some cases offered $100 to be tested for drugs.

The report highlights something police battle more and more on a daily basis, especially in an era of increased prescription medication use: People are driving while impaired on drugs that do not always produce symptoms obvious to the untrained eye and are impossible to test for during a roadside stop.

And yet, between the Allen County Sheriff’s and Fort Wayne Police departments, there are only five officers trained and certified in spotting these symptoms and properly identifying what types of non-alcoholic drugs suspected impaired drivers might be using.

“There are not enough of them because it’s a lot of effort,” said Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries, who said that in his department being a drug recognition expert does not result in an increase in pay. “Officers don’t want to put in all that effort, and the reward is not that great.”

But the survey’s results “scared the daylights out of” government officials, said Joe Turner, the impaired-driving coordinator for the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.

Turner is in charge of training every officer in the state who wants to become a drug recognition expert, which requires extensive coursework and hands-on evaluations in real-world arrests, followed by a recertification process every two years.

The training is paid for through grants from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.

It covers how the human body acts normally and what happens to it when different drugs are introduced. Officers who complete the training will know how specific drugs affect someone’s body temperature, the way they walk, the way they speak and the way their eyes look.

They can also tell whether someone is not suffering the symptoms of a drug but rather having a medical problem, Turner said.

“To find the right people, you really have to find the true believers who want to fight impaired driving,” Turner said.

Expert testimony

With that training, these officers can give expert testimony in criminal cases they are a part of, an advantage not afforded to officers who are not drug recognition experts, according to Turner.

For example, Turner said that a normal officer can pull someone over and determine that person is impaired. If there’s enough probable cause, that officer can ask for blood or urine tests at a hospital to see whether there are drugs in that person’s system.

But if the case goes to trial, the officer can testify only to what he or she saw, saying that the driver had slurred speech, or dilated pupils, or seemed confused. Then, prosecutors would have to call every person who handled that suspect’s blood or urine samples as witnesses, according to Turner.

If a drug recognition expert is called to the scene after the initial stop, he or she can link a driver’s specific symptoms, no matter how subtle they might appear, to certain types of drugs, then testify to that in court.

They can say the suspect had slurred speech due to a type of drug, or dilated pupils due to another drug, whether it’s marijuana, methamphetamines or prescription medication.

In effect, that can help shorten witness lists, cut costs and strengthen cases for prosecutors, who are then more likely to file formal impaired-driving charges against such drivers, Turner said.

But with only two classes capped at 24 applicants each a year, the state is not producing large numbers of drug recognition experts. And many times, according to local police, the ones who go through the training tend to be upwardly mobile in their careers.

After becoming a drug recognition expert, they move on to the detective bureau or another division, and their training lapses.

“In the past, we’ve had up to roughly a dozen,” said Sgt. Jon Bowers, one of three drug recognition experts currently in the Fort Wayne Police Department. “It just kind of ebbs and flows, and typically, people who do the program move on to other things.”

‘The next 5 years’

Late last month, two U.S. senators proposed that federal funding be used to not only train police nationwide in spotting drivers who may be impaired on drugs other than alcohol, but also to develop roadside tests for such drugs, much like a breathalyzer detects alcohol.

To bolster the need for this funding, the senators used 2009 government studies that showed 10.5 million Americans acknowledged they had driven under the influence of drugs and that a third of the 12,055 drivers tested who died in car crashes that year had used drugs.

In Indiana, a new program initiated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is already giving some officers more training in spotting impaired driving, though it does not make these officers drug recognition experts.

And according to local police, the technology that can be used after a traffic stop to test suspected impaired drivers for drugs other than alcohol exists today – it’s just not yet cost effective to use at the local level.

This technology could allow officers to test someone’s saliva and is being perfected.

“In the next five years, we’ll see it,” Bowers said.

According to Turner, as more and more people use prescription and illegal drugs, it’ll be the technology that ultimately keeps them off the road.

Whether it’s combining ignition interlocks to an electronic ankle bracelet – not allowing a car to start if the device detects drugs in a driver’s system – or something else, Turner believes people will continue to drive impaired if the choice is left up to them.

“Unfortunately, if we’re ever going to have a complete fix, it’s going to be technological,” he said. “It won’t be due to the individual.”

jeffwiehe@jg.net