Yahoo Finance Drug drivers are escaping prosecution in 'geographical lottery' where some police ration test kits to one per patrol
Dangerous drug drivers are escaping prosecution and putting lives at risk because some police forces ration testing kits issued to officers to just one a day, a Government-funded study has revealed.
Motorists and other road users are being put in danger by a “geographical lottery” where the best forces are catching ten times more drug drivers per head of population than the worst, says the report for the Department for Transport.
Merseyside police secured 71 convictions per 100,000 of the population, more than ten times the six per 100,000 by the West Midlands force, according to the research by the parliamentary advisory council for transport safety (PACTS).
Seven constabularies - Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Northumbria, Avon and Somerset, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire - had fewer than 10 convictions per 100,000 despite a national trebling in drug-related road deaths to nearly 100 a year since 2013.
The PACTs report said forces were being deterred from enforcing the law by the £16 cost of drug testing kits which the police had to fund unlike most other countries where their Governments picked up the bill.
“Some forces ‘ration’ drug test kits given to roads police officers, making officers more reluctant to drug test all but the most obvious drug drivers. Other forces have specifically asked officers to reduce their use of drug test kits,” said the PACTs report.
“Some forces [are] equipping a roads policing officer with only a single drug test kit when they leave stations.”
There were also delays of up to five months in police getting test results back from laboratories -which they also had to pay for at a cost of £60 to £400. This meant potentially drug drivers were able to continue driving before any sanction could be taken either by police or a court.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Police said the lack of testing and delays meant drug drivers “are being tolerated and allowed to present a continuing threat to communities.”
PACTS proposed the Government should change the law to allow courts to recover the costs of tests from those found guilty of drug driving, as is the case with drink driving offences.
They also proposed that police forces should use their powers to revoke the licences of persistent and dangerous offenders to prevent them driving from the time of the alleged offence until their trial - which could be as long as a year with both test and court backlogs.
They said the need for police to target drug driving was underlined by evidence that they were more likely to be criminals. More than quarter (28 per cent) of those convicted had 10 or more previous offences and four in ten (44 per cent) of recorded offences were committed by reoffenders.
The number of drug drive offences doubled between 2017 and 2019 to nearly 12,500 with those aged between 18 and 29 accounting for the bulk of prosecutions.
PACTS recommended that there should be a new combined drink and drug driving offence, with a lower drug and blood alcohol limit because of the heightened risk from combining the two.
PACTS executive director David Davies said: “The police have made big strides in catching drug drivers over the past five years. But it remains a postcode lottery. While some forces are testing hundreds of drivers, others are rationing patrols to a single test. “These disparities cannot be explained by differences in drug driving and the danger it creates. A more consistent approach is badly needed, with all forces testing for drug driving where it is suspected.”
