By Michael Van Cassell
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — In May, Wyoming will more than double its number of drug recognition experts with a relatively new type of training in the state.
The program trains law enforcement personnel to recognize suspects who have been using drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine.
It was developed in 2006 by Laramie Police Department Sgt. Jonlee Anderle in conjunction with the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
Anderle, state program coordinator, said the training will primarily be applied to driving under the influence charges.
But it also can be used in other crimes and in educational settings to detect if someone is high.
Being under the influence of drugs is illegal in Wyoming.
Across the country, 45 states currently utilize drug recognition expert programs, Anderle said.
Los Angeles Police Department street officers created the program’s procedures in the 1970s.
Wyoming has about 20 law enforcement officers now trained as drug recognition experts. They work at the highway patrol and in local police and sheriff’s departments. They were trained last year and got their certificates last December.
“Our program is still in its infancy,” Anderle said.
Some 32 more officers are expected to be trained in May.
The training requires the officer to be proficient in the regular field sobriety test and complete a seven-day basic course.
They then are sent to hands-on training at Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s detention facility in Phoenix, Ariz.
Three rooms are dedicated for the training there. Officers run through evaluations of 12 different arrestees, seeking to figure out what drug the person has taken.
The officers must be correct on nine out of 12 to be certified.
Cheyenne Police Chief Bob Fecht said his agency has a sergeant and two officers trained now as drug recognition experts.
“We’ve been trying to do this for 18 years,” he added.
Fecht said he would like to have more officers trained, but he doesn’t believe the entire department will get the expert designation.
“It’s just way too intensive to keep everyone certified,” he said.
The federal program uses 12 steps to assess a suspect’s level of impairment, including multiple eye examinations, checking for injection sites and muscle tone and a taking a toxicology sample.
Recognition experts are able to detect seven drug categories: depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, dissociatives, narcotic anaglecics, inhalants and cannabis.
Anderle said he expects one of the cases developed through these techniques to be challenged in court within the next year.
“To this point, we haven’t had any great opposition to it. Obviously, the toxicology speaks a lot,” Anderle said.
Gay Woodhouse, a Cheyenne attorney and president of the Wyoming State Bar, said the drug recognition experts will need case law to back up testimony in court.
The hands-on training and toxicology test will help the program stand up to any challenges, she added.
“It will help because that will be evidence they’ll be able to present,” Woodhouse said.
Copyright 2008 The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle