A package of House bills, 4390 and 4391, would allow police to give the tests to help determine whether drivers are impaired. The testing devices, however, don’t tell police anything about impairment. They only determine the presence of certain drugs. The legislation unanimously passed out of the Government Operations Committee May 22.
PREVIOUS PILOTS
Michigan State Police between 2018 and 2020 conducted two pilot programs, the latter costing $626,000, using roadside drug detection devices that produced a significant number of errors.
The Sotoxa Mobile Test System devices used during the pilot programs were made by Abbott and cost about $6,000 apiece. It’s unclear what devices would be permitted if the new bills pass.
Based on results of the 2020 pilot program, nearly 11% of tests produced false positives or false negatives, indicating they didn’t match the results of follow-up blood tests. Authors of the pilot program summary report referred to blood tests as the “gold standard.”
Related: Attorneys: just say ‘no’ to roadside drug testing
The pilot program required the roadside tests be performed by specially trained drug-detection officers known as drug recognition experts (DRE). The proposed legislation would allow any law enforcement officer to conduct them.
MLive partnered with AL.com on an investigation into the national DRE program last year. The investigation revealed the DRE program, while supported as an accurate tool by law enforcement, is discredited as subjective “junk science” by critics.
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