Sheriff’s Office Adds Second DRE to Aid Fight against Impaired Drivers

Modified: April 6, 2016 12:26pm

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10/02/2015

Buffalo, NY – Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard announces his office is adding a second Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) to enhance the Sheriff Office’s enforcement against impaired drivers.

Recently, a second Deputy completed drug recognition school in Jacksonville, Florida and will be placed into service to assist fellow Deputies and other local law enforcement agencies in determining whether a driver is impaired by drugs.

DRE Deputies need to successfully complete a series of training sessions and evaluations to be accepted into the DRE School.  The process extends several weeks and the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services provided funds for the training.

A trained DRE is increasingly valuable in the Sheriff’s efforts to battle impaired driving.  Unlike alcohol, a breathalyzer cannot be utilized to determine the level of the subject’s impairment, therefore a DRE is trained to observe and identify specific physical signs to determine whether a driver is impaired by drugs. From those signs, the DRE can identify which category of drugs is causing the subject’s impairment.

This addition increases the number of Drug Recognition Experts in the Sheriff’s Office to two.