York Regional Police grappling with shortage of drug recognition experts due to COVID-19

Officers must take part in five days of field training conducted in Jacksonville, Fla., in order to be considered an expert in the field.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the number of certified drug recognition experts (DRE) officers available to police services during ride programs.

“There is no Band-Aid,” explains Staff Sgt. Andy Graham, who heads up the Road Safety Bureau of the York Regional Police (YRP).

That’s because, with the ongoing pandemic, officers haven’t been able to head south following their two-week-long vigorous training session.

“We have been required to add overtime shifts and reallocate our resources to meet our demand because the demand is up,” said Graham.

In March of 2020, YRP had 22 DRE officers fully certified to give expert testimony in court. Now that number has been cut in half due to attrition, while some officers took promotions, retired, or transitioned to another force.

“COVID closed down the province (in 2020) but it didn’t change policing. So we’ve still had to deploy, we’ve still had to respond for calls for services,” explained Graham.

With alcohol and cannabis sales on the rise, officers are seeing an uptick in the number of people driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol. Since the beginning of 2021, YRP has arrested and charged 1,300 people with impaired driving.

Of those arrests, 204 were drug-related and required the expertise of a DRE officer who can conduct sobriety tests in the station and in field for both drugs and alcohol.