Bureau of Justice Assistance Monograph on DRE, 1989

In cleaning out some file cabinets, I stumbled across a U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance Monograph titled "Drug Recognition Program," dated April 1989.

On the cover page, Charles P. Smith, the Director of the BJA, wrote in part:

"The Drug Recognition Process is a non-intrusive, standardized and systematic method of examining a person suspected of impairment due to alcohol and/or other drug abuse. Because of its promise for local law enforcement, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has supported the efforts of the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to accelerate pilot site demonstrations of this new technology."

The twenty-four page document provides a nice history of the development of the DRE program. It points out that the results of the Johns Hopkins Study (1984) and the LA Field Validation Study (1985) prompted NHTSA to work with the LAPD to develop a standardized curriculum for DRE training. It identifies the four pilot sites that were selected to establish DRE programs based on the LAPD program: metropolitan Phoenix, Denver and Boulder, Colorado, Nassau County, New York, and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Three additional pilot sites were selected in 1988: Indiana, Utah, and an expansion of the Los Angeles program to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, the Long Beach Police Department, and agencies in Yolo County. "The California site is an expansion of the original Los Angeles program..." Thus, this Federal Monograph clearly recognizes the fact that the Los Angeles DRE program was recognized by the Federal Government as a useful tool in 1987. "The Drug Recognition Program will prove useful in many jurisdictions. It is an effective means of dealing with drivers who imperil others by getting behind the wheel while incapacitated by drugs."

As of the publication of this document, April, 1989, the program was called the "Drug Recognition Program." In subsequent years the program became known as the "DECP."