S.D. Police Face Random Drug Testing

The San Diego Police Department will become the second department in the state to impose mandatory random drug testing, a policy that the president of the state’s largest law-enforcement association says is an unnecessary civil rights infringement.

Police Chief Bob Burgreen announced the policy Friday and said it will go into effect next Friday. Random drug testing will involve only those in several units that work closely with drug enforcement: criminal intelligence, gangs, internal affairs, the narcotics street team, the narcotics task force, and the vice squad.

Of the department’s 1,850 sworn officers, about 140 work in those units and each must pass a urine test twice a year. Those who transfer into those units after next Friday also must pass the tests, Burgreen said in a news release.

Officers will be selected randomly by computer, given a 48-hour notice, and must submit two samples, one of which will be tested by an outside laboratory. If an officer tests positive for drugs, he can have the other sample tested on his own to challenge the department’s findings.

An officer who abuses prescription drugs faces possible disciplinary action. An officer who abuses an illegal drug could be fired, Burgreen said.

Burgreen said the department does not have a drug problem, but officers “are not immune to the problems facing society today, including the use of illicit drugs.”

The department already administers drug tests for new employees and has a policy in place that allows supervisors to order employees to take a test if they suspect a problem.

Harry Eastus, the general manager of the Police Officers Assn., said representatives of the 1,800-member bargaining unit agreed to the testing.

“This is no big deal,” Eastus said. “It gives credibility to the department. We don’t believe there is a violation of constitutional rights because these are public safety officers.”

Eastus said about a half-dozen officers had complained about the new policy.

But Larry Malmberg, president of the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, which represents 500 law-enforcement associations and 35,000 members, said the news is disturbing.

“To be frank, I don’t know if a union can negotiate an officer’s rights away,” he said. “I don’t see any real benefit to it. If the San Diego Police Department doesn’t suspect a drug problem within the department, why do this?”

Malmberg said only the South Lake Tahoe Police Department randomly tests its officers for drugs. He said Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates had proposed such a policy in upcoming labor negotiations, but bargaining units there have resisted.

“What’s next?” Malmberg asked. “Do we start wiretapping officer’s telephones to find out what they’re up to? Where do you draw the line?”

Lt. Dennis Gibson, who works in internal affairs and developed the drug program, said the San Diego police policy took about 18 months to develop. He said a number of departments throughout the country have similar policies although some have been declared unconstitutional.

Drug-testing programs are subject to a number of problems, including mixed-up samples and invasion-of-privacy charges, said Lt. Skip Murphy of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and head of the local committee of the Peace Officers Research Assn.

“I think some people will be opposed to this,” he said. “But a large number in our occupation are not afraid to pee in a bottle to show they’re clean.”