New road safety operations team expands drug driving capability

Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbell, today announced the number of officers trained to conduct roadside drug testing would be increased to enable a multipronged approach to roadside operations.

Mr Corbell said that the new team would provide the community with multi-skilled police officers specifically trained to target and remove high risk takers from our roads.

"The new team combines the RAPID (Recognition and Analysis of Plates Identified) and the six-month-old Random Roadside Drug Testing (RRDT) team - increasing the number of officers able and trained to conduct random roadside drug testing from two to nine," he said.

Since ACT Policing began operating random roadside drug testing in May 2011, more than 300 drug tests have been conducted with ten returning positive roadside tests. Of the ten, two have been charged and convicted.

"The initial months focused on establishing robust governance, training and developing operational requirements, including the purchase of drug kits and other equipment," Mr Corbell said.

"The Road Safety Operations team is now in place to expand our road safety efforts. The public can expect to see the team out and about, setting up roadside operations targeting drink driving, drug driving and unregistered/unlicensed drivers - a multipronged approach to improving road safety."

The oral swabs used for random roadside drug testing detect the presence of cannabis, methamphetamine (speed and ice) and ecstasy (MDMA).

"In 2011 we recorded the lowest road toll - single digits - in more than 50 years. To date, we haven't recorded a road death in the ACT in almost 12 months. That's a significant achievement.

"Random roadside drug testing is a key strategy in the ACT Government's road safety approach and like drink driving is about removing impaired drivers from our roads - drivers that pose the highest risk."