West Mids Police Forces Reveal Drugalyser Arrests
2 April 2015, 07:16 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
A month to the day that driver drugalysers were introduced across England and Wales for the first time, Capital's been told by police forces in the West Midlands how exactly they've been using those powers.
Since the new legislation came into force on March 2 - four arrests have been made in Staffordshire, while five of the 11 drivers stopped in Warwickshire and West Mercia tested positive for having either cannabis or cocaine in their system.
The latest arrest comes as recently as Tuesday night when a driver was caught in Warwickshire.
Inspector Jeff Morris told Capital he expects to catch more people in the coming months.
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He said: "We expect to see that number rise significantly over the coming weeks because we're rolling out a lot more devices to training officers so it's going pretty well.
"We're using the devices at the scenes of serious collisions where people have been injured.
"We're actually showing that if you are using drugs and you're driving and involved in a serious incident you will be drugalysed by us and dealt with if if found to be over the legal limit."
Speaking on behalf of Staffordshire Police, Inspector Matthew Derrick from the force's road crime team said: "There's considerable impairment caused by drugs, it's up there with alcohol and I think it's about time we start to get to grips with it.
"The public seem to be receiving it well, I suppose the ones who aren't receiving it well are perhaps the ones who use drugs and drive."
The West Midlands Police force told us it's too difficult for them to provide us with figures at this stage.
