ARIDE class helps police keep roads safer by identifying impaired drivers
Training allows officers to sharpen their skills for DUI detection
TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – Sherman Police Chief Joel Spellins is spending part of his week teaching area law officers to observe, identify, and articulate signs of impairment.
“This is an introduction to how to detect impaired drivers, with drugs, alcohol, or a combination of other substances,” Spellins said.
Spellins is a Master Instructor for the ARIDE Course. ARIDE stands for Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement. The class expands on the training an officer has already received in the standardized field sobriety class. It gives the officer several more signs to look for when conducting a roadside test.
“It all builds, because you are still doing field sobriety, so you have tests with the eyes, looking for jerkiness of eyes, divided attention test, where you have them walk a line, or stand on one foot. Not a balance test, but divided attention, to see if they can do more than one thing at a time,” Spellins said.
And while alcohol consumption used to be the main cause of impaired driving, Spellins said officers are seeing more drivers impaired because of marijuana use. He said that it has been on the increase since medical marijuana was legalized more than two years ago.
“You have a lot of people using it and trying to drive, they think they are ok to drive because they have a prescription, but you still can’t drive while smoking marijuana,” he said.
The training also helps officers recognize conditions that mimic drug impairment.
“You’re painting a picture. Each one you get cues and clues, each is like a brush stroke, and when you are through, you have a full painting. If you don’t have a full painting, they are obviously not impaired and you will let them go,” Spellins said.
Cost of the class is covered through grants. Classes in Tupelo are taught at the North Mississippi Law Enforcement Training Center.
ARIDE is part of Mississippi Tide, or Training for Impaired Driving Enforcement, a unit within the Oxford Police Department.
